A Short and True ACCOUNT OF THE Several Advances THE Church of England Hath made towards ROME: OR, A MODEL of the Grounds upon which the PAPISTS for these Hundred years have built their Hopes and Expectations, that England would ere long return to POPERY.  
By Dr. Du-Moulin, sometime History-Professor of Oxford.  
Veritas Odium parit.  
LONDON: Printed in the Year, 1680.   

A Short and True Account of the several Advances the Church of England hath made towards Rome, &c.  
SIR,  
TO discharge my duty, and acquit myself of my promise to you, I have here in these following Papers given you the substance of our last conversation about the Grounds and Motives which have induced the Roman catholics to conspire and attempt such horrible murders as they have done, especially this late damnable and hellish Plot, of subverting the Government, altering the Religion, and taking away the Life of our most Sacred Monarch; the most daring and cruel that ever was designed, next to that of Crucifying the most holy Jesus, the Lord of life and glory.  
You may please to remember, we dwelled long upon this consideration; and indeed we ought to regard with the highest grief, and even with tears of blood, the present state of many Bishops and Doctors of the Church of England, otherwise pious, learned, and well-affected, who with great fervour and zeal declare themselves against the cruel and bloody Principles of the Papists, and against the Papists themselves; and yet make no reflection upon themselves nor their Predecessors;  shed no tears, nor are they touched as they ought to be, at the sense of their compliance for above this last whole Century, with the Doctrine and Ceremonies of the Church of Rome: in not acknowledging any other Protestants in the world besides themselves; in discarding all the Reformed Churches beyond Sea, out of the Catalogue of the true Churches of Jesus Christ: in making voided all manner of Ordination, but that which is Episcopal, and consequently that of Papists, and their Adherents: in putting Calvin, the first Author of their Reformation in England, Scotland, and Ireland, among the chief of Rebels and Fanaticks; and suffering persons of the most known approved piety and integrity, to be exposed on the Stage, and made a spectacle of derision to the whole world; and, to conclude, in persecuting all the English Protestants that are at a far greater distance from Rome than themselves: by which means they have, if not intentionally, at least by a necessary consequence, encouraged the Papists to believe, hope, and to expect, even with some confidence, a hasty success, that a very little matter would re-unite them to Rome. Nay, and this Re-union seems already to them to be so far advanced, that nothing is able to obstruct the happy issue of so great, so pious, and so meritorious a work, as they call it, but the Life of his Sacred Majesty.  
But, Sir, to make yet more clear and evident to you, that the hopes of the Papists were not groundless, nor chimerical, not even from the very beginning of the Reformation; but that either by getting the King over to their side, or else by removing him out of the way( as they have lately often attempted, though, blessed be God, hitherto in vain), they hoped to find it an easy business to reduce England to the Communion of Rome.  
You may please to remark that as soon as ever the Reformation was resolved on, the Sentiments of those who had the Governance of it, were divided into two Classes, much-what equal in number, and in quality of interest: Some of them, as Bishop Hooper, Coverdale, John Fox, John Rogers, and Peter Martyr, appeared vigorously for an absolute and through Reformation, conformable to the Model that Calvin had given of it: the others, as Cranmer, Ridley, Cox, &c. were of that judgement, as peremptorily to conclude that a Reformation in all points at first, would draw along with it a dangerous consequence; and that to endeavour to reform all, would be to reform nothing at all; that in that present juncture of affairs, it was impossible all at once to pass from one extreme to another; but it were better to choose a middle way, and so gradually to advance the Reformation, until the people, who were then almost all of them Papists, were more illuminated, and better instructed in the Protestant Religion, and their number were increased, and consequently more disposed to receive the Impressions of this entire and perfect Reformation, which would absolutely draw them off from Rome.  
The judgement of these latter prevailing, they jointly determined to retain some Ceremonies, and some other outward parts of the service of the Roman Church, hoping that it would be a means in a little time of bringing over the Papists to their point, viz. To embrace the Reformed Religion: whereupon they continued the kneeling when they received the Sacrament of the Eucharist; signing with the across at the Administration of Baptism; Bowing at the name of Jesus, and not at the name of God, or of Christ; also the Sacerdotal and Episcopal Ornaments; the Religious observance of Feasts, and the Holy time of Lent; the vast distance between a Bishop and a Minister of Jesus Christ, whereby the Bishop is advanced above the highest Civil Dignities, and the Minister is made inferior to the lowest of them, and confounded with the common people; whence it happened, that the eminent and high Rank which the Bishops held, as it divested the Inferior Ministers of all that kind of Jurisdiction, which they called ecclesiastic, so it impowred them arbitrarily with it, though in a manner altogether unwarrantable, because full of iniquity; for they did not delegate it to the Ministers of the Gospel, but to Secular persons, who did not excommunicate in the name of Jesus Christ, but in the name of the Bishops, who were rigidly tenacious of this practise of the Church of Rome, from whence they were lately come. Moreover, they were as stiff and sierce in maintaining their Succession, which by all means they stood upon as coming from Rome: by virtue whereof they arrogated to themselves alone the power of Ordination, and Excommunication: neither were the abuses of Visitations, nor the penal Commutations into pecuniary, retrenched; nor the plurality of benefice, whereby six or seven hundred Persons, Bishops, Deans, and Canons, possessed, as they do still, three parts of four of the Revenues of the Church.  
All these relics of Popery were then retained; and to speak truly of them, it was with a good intention: The first Reformers, who were men of extraordinary goodness and piety, and had honest designs, were not able at the very first thoroughly to cleanse the Augaean Stable of the Church of Rome from its corrupt impurities; but bequeathing the perfection of this work to their Successors, they chiefly set upon that which was most essential: they endeavoured to reform their Doctrine, and to establish the true service of God without any mixtures of Idolatry.  
You may yet further be pleased to take notice, that these two dissenting parties have successively been, and continued in the Church of England to this very day: The one in vain hoping to get these Ceremonies rooted out of the Church, which were retained in the first Essay of the Reformation, whilst the other party have been so far from quitting them, that they have every day made nearer advances to them, and studied how to symbolise more and more with the Church of Rome; introducing still more of their corrupt practices, and some new Ceremonies of that Church; and also souring with the leaven of Rome, the holy Doctrine of the Church of England.  
But yet, not to make all alike guilty, you may please to observe as we go along, That as at the beginning the English Protestants, both People and Clergy, were divided into two Classes, the Conformists, and Nonconformists, or Puritans; likewise the Conformists were sub-divided into two Classes, whereof one, who were the most prevailing, and most followed by those who have their portion in this life, did not only adopt those Ceremonies and practices that Cranmer, Ridley, and Cox, had retained at the beginning; but besides them, they introduced others of the Church of Rome, and insensibly corrupted the Doctrine of the Church of England, in giving a Romish sense and interpretation to the Orthodox confession of this Church, agreed on in King Edw. 6. days, and in the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. The other party of the Conformists, who were the most orthodox, the most approved, and the most followed by the faithful people of God, have always been dissatisfied with, and have opposed their Brethren the Conformists, and their design of introducing new Ceremonies and practices. There were many of this last Class in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, and her Successor-Kings, as jewel, Fox, Rudd, Smith, Reynolds, Carleton, Jerome, Perkins, Morton, Davenant, the two Abbots, grindal, Hall, Usher, Prideaux, Brownrig: and at this present, the Bishops of London, Lincoln, and Hereford, and some others, who have always kept faithful to the Doctrine of the Church of England, and have always been of opinion, as they have openly declared, That these Ceremonies and practices which I have been speaking of, ought to be suppressed, as being the cause of division among those who were united in matters of faith: But, above all, they could not endure that spirit of persecution with which their Brethren were animated against the Nonconformists; and they have  told them, that this rigorous imposing of the practices and Ceremonies of Rome, was not only contrary to the spirit of Christianity, but to the design which the first Reformers had in their eye, when in their first beginning of Reformation they had thought it necessary to retain some of the Romish practices and Ceremonies, because their design was to use them as a bait to draw the Papists to our Religion; but not as a hook, or scourge, to entrap, and chastise those Protestants who should deny their Conformity to those Ceremonies: This hath been the judgement of John Hales, Joseph Mead, Thomas Fuller, and Dr. Stillingfleet.  
And certainly these good Bishops of the last Class among the Conformists, were so far from this spirit of persecution, that some of them, as grindal Archbishop of Canterbury, have either set up, or countenanced all over England the practise of private Assemblies, or Meetings, which were called Houses of prophesy, wherein the gifts of Prophesying, and expounding the Sacred Scriptures, were exercised, and where was kept up an exact practise of Piety. But as this practise did too much increase the number of Puritans, who were directly contrary to that of Ceremonies, the corrupt part of the Church of England laboured all they could to discredit the use of it, and to look upon grindal with an evil eye, who had first set it on foot, and he was forced to quit his charge, which was next bestowed on Whitgift, a man sitter for their turn and service. Carleton, Bishop of Carlisle, was so great a friend to the Puritan-Ministers, that he published the Lives of some of the eminentest among them, as of Gilpin, and of John Knox.  
It remains for me now to prove, that at least since the beginning of the Reign of King James, the corrupted party of the Church of England has been daily making nearer advances to that of Rome: But this being matter of fact, which one may either be an eye-witness of, or may find upon record, it will not be necessary that I should much insist upon it, nor that I should give you a Catalogue of all those bad instruments, who for these fifty years, last past, have filled England with their Books, which yet might have been pardonned them, if they had only relished of Popery, and had not been infected with the venom of Arminianism, Pelagianism, and Socinianism, and the Maxims of Dr. Hobbes: such as were the Books of Heylin, Thorndike, Jeremy tailor, Archbishop Bramhall, Pocklinton, Parker; Martyn, Gregory Greybeard: for three Archbishops, Laud, Bramhall, and Maxwell, who lived at the same time, were jointly resolved to advance the Doctrines and practices of Rome, and to promote them in England, Scotland, and Ireland: Henry Dodwell hath not long since published a large Book, which makes a great deal of noise and stir in the world; wherein he endeavours to prove, that where there is no Episcopal Ordination like that of the Romish, or English Church, there is no true Church of Jesus Christ, no Sacraments, no Ministry, and no Salvation. I cannot slip a great Folio made by a Bishop in Ireland, the whole design whereof, is to show that Calvin, and all the Puritan party, have introduced Anarchy into the Church, that they are the real Antichrists, the Pests of the State, and the Enemies of Secular Powers; that to give a firm and steady footing to the Regency of crwoned Heads, and to give peace to the world, this Calvinian Puritanical spirit ought to be expelled; and that none ought to presume to come near the persons of these Anointed of the Lord, but those other anointed, who are the Bishops; and that there is nothing more true than this maxim, No Bishop, no King. But if it were proper for me in this place to enlarge upon this subject, I could show that this Maxim is as false as the Turkish Alcoran; that the Interests of Bishops, and their practise, is utterly destructive of, and repugnant to the establishment of Secular Powers: and whereas Episcopacy is the first step of ascention to the Popedom, this is that which Bishops chiefly aim at, to have a Pope to themselves, or some other Power very much resembling it.  
There is not in all History one Example of a Bishop, that has any whit contributed to the making of a King, unless he became tributary to their mitre: for even in those places where the Pope hath no power, the Bishops, as such, will not pay their submission to Kings, unless upon this Consideration, that they have, like Moses, the Sacerdotal Unction: for looking upon them as Temporal Princes, they submit them to their Character, and make the Civil Power truckle to the ecclesiastic: they will admit the King, in this Sacerdotal Quality, and as Head of the Church, presiding at the Convocation of the Clergy, to have the power to make Ordinances and Canons for the regulation of the Church, by an Authority independent on Parliaments; in which they tell us, That Kings are but the Executors of the Commands of the Church; for the writ de Excommunicato capiendo doth issue from the Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Prince to the Temporal, to execute the censure judged to be inflicted by the Ecclesiastical. This is the Doctrine of the English Church as well as the Romish: the Bishops, even the reformed, speak much what like to Peter Bartier, Bishop of Montaubon, in his Speech to the King at Rheimes the 8 June, 1654. where he says, That the Bishops are the head to rule and govern, and the mouth of the Church to speak; but the King is the arm, and right-hand for the execution of the Churches Decrees. This is the language of Rome, De Majoritate& obedientia,& ibi glossa; omnes principes terrae Episcopis obedire Petrus praecipiebat.  
'tis true, the Church of England do not speak so grossly; but yet supposing the King to be invested with a Papal power independent on the Civil, it will not then be very wide from the language of the Bishop of Montaubon: for Bishop Hall in the year 1640 made a long Speech to the House of Peers, wherein he endeavours to prove that the King either single, or respected as the head of the Convocation, can make Canons as equally and strongly binding as Laws, without the assent, concurrence, or ratisication of Parliament, where he is putting their Lordships in mind of the continual practise of the Christian Church, since the first Synod of the Apostles( Acts 15.) to this day; wherein( says he) I suppose it can never be showed that ever any Ecclesiastical Canons made by the Bishops and Clergy in Synods general, national, provincial, were either offered or required to be confirmed by Parliaments: Emperors and Princes, by whose Authority those Synods were called, have still given their power to the ratification and execution of them, and none others; and if you please to look into the times within the ken of Memory, or somewhat beyond it, Linwoods Constitutions which Parliaments confirmed; The Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth; the Canons of King James, were never tendered to the Parliament for confirmation; and yet have so far obtained hitherto, that the Government of the Church was by them still regulated; and whereas, says he, it is said that we have made Canons and Constitutions; Alas my Lords, we have made none, nor can we, more than they can moke Laws: the Canons are so to the Church, as Laws are for the Common-wealth: Now they do but rogare legem, they do not forre, or sancire legem, that is only for the King to do, it is le Roy le Veult, that of Bills makes Laws: so was it for us to do in matters of Canons, we might propound some such constitutions as we should think might be useful; but when we have done, we sand them to his Majesty, who perusing them cum advisamento Consilij sui, and approving them, puts life into them; and of dead propositions, makes them Canons; as therefore the Laws are the King's Laws, and not ours; so are the Canons the King's Canons, and not the Clergies. Dr. Stillingfleet comes not much short of the Bishop, in his Irenicum, p. 16. The grand use of Synods, and Assemblies of Pastors of Churches, is to be as the Council of the Church unto the King in matters belonging to the Church, as the Parliament is for matters of civil Government: and as the King for settling civil Laws, takes advice of those persons who are more versed in matters of Law; so by proportion of Reason concerning the Church, they are the fittingst Council, who have been the most versed in matters immediately belonging to the Church.  
On the other hand, Histories are full of examples, which clearly prove, that that party which comes nearest to the Doctrine and practise of the Calvinists and Puritans, and which is most opposite to Rome; that these, I say, have above all others observed the command of the Apostle to the Romans, c. 13. Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers. It was this party who most opposed the League between Rome and Spain; who did set the Crown upon the head of Henry IV: it was this party who established the Family of the Stuarts in this Kingdom; who delivered King James, then in his cradle, out of the hands of his Mother Queen Mary, who was a Papist, and gave him the Crown before he had got the use of his tongue, and exercise of his reason: it was this party who restored the Crown to Charles II, and who did as much for Lewis XIII, in defeating the Conspiracy of the Duke de montmoremcy, and the Archbishop of bourdeaux; nor did they less for Lewis XIV, during the last siege of Paris; to conclude, they made the King of Sueden, Charles the II, to Reign, who was the Father of Gustavus Adolphus. But( alas!) most of these Kings have paid them with ingratitude, and even persecuted them at the instigation of the Bishops, when their kindnesses to them have exceeded all possibility of equal acknowledgements. Beneficia eo usque laeta sunt, cum videntur exolvi posse, ubi multum antevenere, pro gratia odium redditur: They have been treated as Rebels and Murtherers, that had drawn their Swords against their King, whereas they never drew it but in his defence: they have requited them as Basil the Emperor of Greece did one, who, having saved his life by cutting his belt, which had entangled him in the horns of a Stag, was put to death for drawing his sword against the Emperour. This Puritan-party, for their so close adhering to the Doctrine, Discipline, and Life of Calvin, have been clothed with Bears-skins and Lyons-skins, that the whole kennel of Rome, or their whelps in England, being let loose upon them, might bait them with greater rage and fury. And this the Lord hath permitted by a wise dispensation of Providence, which will have judgement to begin at his own house, as St. Peter says, and as it has been known by experience over all parts of Europe.  
The Animosities of the Conformists against the Nonconformists are so great, that the fear they are in, lest the Parliament should make some Reformation in the Doctrine, and in several either ancient or novel practices of the Church of England, and should touch upon the noli me tangere of their benefice and pluralities, makes them not only to talk daily at their Tables, and joint-societies; but even publicly to declare in their Books, that now being falling from Scylla to Charibdis, that is, from Popery to Presbytery, they would rather embrace the Church of Rome, and turn Papists, than close with the sneaking Conventicles of the Presbyterians, as you may see by that considerate expression of Dr. Parker in the next Paragraph.  
But to leave this digression, and fall again upon the subject in hand, wherein I was speaking of the favourers of Rome, in the Prelatical party of the Church of England: One Dr. Cheney in his Theological Collectiour, cap. 16. and Bramhall against Baxter, maintain with Thonnedibe in his Weights and Measures, That the Church of Rome is a true visible Church of Jesus Christ, and in no way guilty of Schism: Bramhall says, pag. 117. It is a pernicious, opinion of the Resormed Churches of France, the promiseuous licence they give to all sorts of people, qualified or unqualified, not only to red, but to interpret the Holy Scripture according to their private spirit, or particular funcios, without any regard either of the Analogy of Faith which they understand not, or the interpretation of the Doctors of former ages: this I might better say, is more prejudicial, and most pernicious both to particular Christians, and to whole soeieties, than the over-rigorous restraining of the Romanists: and in pag. 116. he tells us, He does not find the Church of Rome to be guilty of retrenching any truth that is necessary to salvation.  
Parker, in his Preface before Bishop Bramhall's Book, shows a great deal more kindness to the Papists, than to the Puritans. I must have, says he, a greater kindness for the Roman catholics, as being an Adversary more learned, and so to be expected more civil and gentle; and wherein they dissent from us, they look upon as fundamental, and so have a greater reason for their dissent, than our fanatical Presbyterians. And Mr. Andrew marvel tells us in his Rehearsal, 2 part. p. 279. That Parker  told a Lady of good quality, That in case Popery were introduced, he would be one of the first to comply with it. And so no doubt would many more do: for they, through the love they bear to Rome, do spit in the face of the People of God in the language of the said Dr. Parker. Reply, p. 56. That the Nonconformists make a great noise of the Lord Jesus Christ, and getting an interest in him, and tells us sine Romances of the secret amours betwixt the believing soul, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and prodigious stories of the miraculous feats of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  
Heylin, one of the great Promoters of the Doctrines and practices of Rome, was a great admirer of their ways, and of their near affinity with Rome: and speaking of Dr. Cosins, who was since Bishop of Durham, and who was thought to be much against the Doctrine of Rome, says of him nevertheless, That the Devotions he set forth about fifty years since, or more, gave the world a great suspicion that he was inclinable to Popery; and the frontispiece of his Book did put it beyond all peradventure: for in it he had caused those three Letters to be cut, J. H. S. and a across encircled with a Glory.  
Joseph Hall, one of the Bishops that did most vigorously oppose not only the design of Laud, &c. of introducing the Doctrines and Ceremonies of Rome both in the Church and Universities, but also that spirit of persecution that animated him against the Nonconformists, expresses himself in a Letter he writ above threescore years ago, in this manner to Laud, before he was Dean or Bishop, and when, being at Oxford, he made his furious heat appear against the Puritans, and was a great Innovator, and testified a kindness for the Doctrine and Ceremonies of Rome.  
decade. 3. Epist. 5. To William Land, expostulating the cause of his darkness in Religion, &c.  
I would I knew where to find you, then I could tell how to take a direct aim, whereas now I must rove and conjecture: To day you are in the tents of the Romanists, to morrow in ours, the next day between both, against both: our Adversaries think you ours, we theirs; your conscience finds you with both, and neither. I flatter you not, this of yours is the worst of all tempers; heat and could have their uses, lukewarmness is good for nothing, but to trouble the stomach: those that are spiritually hot, find acception; those that are stark could, have a lesser reckoning; the mean between both is so much the worse, as it comes nearer to good, and attains it not. How long will you halt in this indifferency? resolve one way, and know at last what you do hold, what you should cast off, either your wings or your teeth; and loathing this Bat-like nature, be either a bide or a Beast. To die wavering and uncertain, yourself will grant fearful. If you must settle, when begin you? If you must begin, why not now? 'tis dangerous deferring that whose want is deadly, and whose opportunity is doubtful. Is there any impediment which delay will abate? Is there any which a just answer cannot remove? If you had rather waver, who can settle you? But if you love not inconstancy, tell us why you stagger: be plain, or else you will never be firm.  
All the Letters, Writings, and Conversations of this great and worthy man, are evident proofs that he loved Puritans in his heart, and desired to come nearer to the Presbyterians and Nonconformists, even for matters of Government: for he says, The divisions of the Church are either general, betwixt our Church, and the other Reformed; or special, as those within the bosom of our own Church: For the former, blessed be God there is no difference in any essential matter betwixt the Church of England and her Sisters of the Reformation: We accord in every point of Christian Doctrine, without the least variation; their public Confessions and ours, are sufficient convictions to the world, of our full and absolute agreement. The only difference is, in the form of outward Administration; wherein also we are so far agreed, as that we all profess this form not to be essential to the being of a Church( though much importing the well, or better being of it, according to the several apprehensions thereof): and that we do all retain a reverend and loving opinion of each other in our own several ways, not seeing any reason why so poor a diversity should work any alienation of affection in us one towards another; but withal, nothing hinders( and this I mostly aim at here) but that we may come yet nearer to one another, if both may resolve to meet in that primitive Government( whereby it is meet we should both be regulated) universally agreed upon by all antiquity, wherein all things were ordered and transsacted by the consent of the Presbytery, moderated by one constant President thereof. Laus Deo, nullum inter nos de Religionis substantia certamen. Theol. Gallus de discipl. Ecclesiae, c. 1. An. 1622. Instituti divini est, ut in omni caetu Presbyterorum unus sit qui ordine praeeat& praesit reliquis. Bez. de grad. Minist. Evangel. Bp. Hall in his Peace-maker, fol. 560. c. 6.  
The particular account of his Life, which he himself drew up, doth confirm how great an affection he had for that Party. And as he loved the Puritans, so he had no affection for the Anti-Puritan, whom he thus describeth: He who hath a greater horror, and believes he commits a higher crime in not pulling off his hat, and being uncovered at the name of Jesus, than in taking the name of God in vain by swearing.  
But since I am fallen upon the specialities of his Life, of which he himself is the Writer; I cannot let slip one passage here, which fully and clearly proves, that whereas in the beginning and first design of the Reformation, our Reformers thought fit to retain some ceremonies of the Church of Rome, it was so far from bringing Rome nearer to us, or make it to comform to our Doctrine, that it was rather a Cord to draw us to its communion, and a means to make them hope, believe, be almost assured, that England would one day return into the bosom of her Mother again; which an ingenious Gentleman illustrated by a most apt similitude of a floating Vessel fastened to a Rock by a Rope, so that if any in the Vessel should have a mind to pull this Rock to them by the Rope, they would find their endeavours insignificant and foolish: for instead of gaining their desire, they would draw themselves nearer to the Rock. Bishop Bonner having learnt that Cranmer and Ridley had retained some Ceremonies and Practices of the Romish Church, said, That he doubted not, since their broth went down with them so well, but they would ere long come to feed upon their Beef too. And the Papists have always been in hopes, that kneeling at the Sacrament of the Eucharist, would in a short time turn the Table to an Altar; and that the object of this kneeling or genuflection, would be bread and wine transubstantiated; concluding thus with themselves, That one of the relatives, as was the Altar, being once admitted, would soon bring in its correlative the Sacrifice.  
The truth is, we have in the Church of England proofs and testimonies enough to convince us, that the effect of keeping up the Ceremonies of Rome, would be no less than this, viz. the incorporating of both Churches into one; and that those Ceremonies would be of the nature of leaven, which though little, was sufficient to leaven the whole lump; whereas in the Churches Reformed according to the Model of Calvin, which have always kept themselves whole and pure from any mixtures of corruption, and have got as far off from Rome, as England is advanced to it, it is clear otherwise. But to return to Joseph Hall.  
I had( saith he in the specialities of his life) in my journey to Spaw in Germany, a very hot dispute with a Sorbonist, a Prior of the Carmelites, in the company of several Noblemen, and other persons as well Ecclesiastical as Secular, very different both in Communion and Opinions. The Sorbonist maintained( and there were some of the Protestants that joined with him). That the Church of England believed Transubstantiation, because kneeling at the Communion was looked on by those of the Romish Church, and by all Protestants, except some English, as a consequence of Transubstantiation; it being an absurd and ridicalous thing to kneel at the eating of common bread, and drinking of common drink; that the world had never heard of kneeling at the Communion; and that it was never practised for the first Twelve Centuries; and that when it began to be used, it was a consequence of Transubstantiation; that if Transubstantiation had been believed in the Church, before kneeling at the Supper( as the Roman catholics would have it) at least this genuflection or kneeling was never in use and practise before the belief of Transubstantiation. That not any Church of Calvin's Communion but England, ever practised this genuflection: that if some Lutheran Churches use it, it is in respect of their Consubstantiation, which is much a kin to the other: in a word, that there is nothing more true than this, That kneeling had never been thought of, had it not been for the Doctrine of Transubstantiation.  
This reasoning seemed so plausible to all the company, at least to the greatest part; and the applauses which were given to the Prior, and to those who maintained the strength of it, were attended with such a shout and acclamation, that it was impossible for the Bishop to disabuse them, in alleging the rubric, or the express Declaration of the Church of England; which says in positive words, That this kneeling was to adore Jesus Christ, and did not terminate in the Elements.  
This passage makes me to remember another I have red in a discourse between grindal Archbishop of Canterbury, and Theodore Beza: this latter had written to the Archbishop, that kneeling at the Communion was a great shock to most of the Protestants, and a rock of offence, but was wholly grateful to the Papists, as being a Ceremony which would go near to bring in Transubstantiation: for Beza as yet had not heard of the Declaration contained in the rubric, till grindal had made him acquainted with the Contents of it; but being informed of it, he returned this Apologue.  
There was a certain great Lord, who, resolving to repair his house, and having made all necessary preparations to that end, and finished the structure, left before his gate a great ston which he had had no occasion for; it seems this ston caused many persons in the dark to stumble and fall at it: Complaint hereof being made, he was desired to have it removed out of the way; but being a long time obstinate, he was at last persuaded to hang a lantern over this ston: this being also very troublesone, one of his friends took the liberty to speak to him about it, and said, Sir, if you would be pleased to rid yourself of further solicitation, and quiet all parties, cause this ston and candle to be taken away from your gate: This ston, saith Beza, is a ston of stumbling, and it represents the kneeling at the Communion, as also the rubric represents the lantern. Indeed the Lawyers and the Judges look upon those Laws to be absolutely unprofitable, which cannot be understood, nor subsist without Comments and Glosses: and when Laws are enacted against Treasons, Murders, and Robberies on the highways, they stand in need of rubrics, Exceptions, &c.  
As then the Papists saw that they retained at the beginning of the Reformation, many of their Ceremonies, they thereby conceived hopes, that they would be like a three cut down, but not plucked up by the roots, so that in time they might put forth new branches: so likewise the adopting of many of their Superstitions and corrupt Doctrines, do confirm their hopes, and makes them believe, That the passage would neither be long nor difficult from the Religion of that corrupt party, unto the Religion of Rome.  
It is easy for me to verify this by such proofs as are incontestable, taken from two sorts of witnesses, from those who fear some great change in Religion, and those who express much joy in the hopes of it. I could easily bring a could of witnesses of this latter sort, English, French, Italians, Germans, &c. who published to the world the joy which they had to see England in so good a disposition to favour and embrace Popery.  
A certan Jesuit, one Ch. M. in his pious Sermon on the 51 Psalm, Printed in the year 1631. with the approbation of John Colvener, who was appointed to examine and licence those Books that were to be printed at dovay, said, That it was needless to dwell long upon proofs to show the Mass is a real and true Sacrifice, since he saw England so well disposed to receive it, and that it set up Altars everywhere to that end; which did necessary import the consequence, viz. a true Sacrifice; Since the Altar and Sacrifices are correlative terms.  
Another Jesuit in a Book entitled, Charity maintained, expresses great joy in the prospect of this good work( as Dr. Bray calls it) which was then in hand: See what he says in his Preface, speaking of the change which happened in the Church of England, and of its affinity with Rome.  
The Doctrine is altered in many things: the Pope is no longer Antichrist: Images are tolerated: Predestination on foreseen works: Universal Grace: Inherent Righteousness, are all granted, and free-will is preached up: they have given to the 39 Articles a catholic sense: they acknowledge the Authority of the Church in deciding Controversies about matters of faith, and interpretation of Scripture: In conversation and in writings they now more generally, and with greater pleasure make use of the more venerable names of Priests, and Altars: the Protestant Religion is almost now grown weary of itself: and to be a Calvinist in England, is to be a Traitor, and a heretic: Limbus patrum, prayers for the dead, Justification by works, the possibility of keeping the Commandments of God, now begin to be introduced.  
In the Writings of Heylin, Dr. Bray, Pocklynton, and a hundred others, there are to be found convincing proofs of what this Jesuit alleges: the Books of those men, and such as they are, are only those now that are cried up and licenced: so that it need not to be wondered that the Popish Writers believe them upon their own words, and have gathered great hopes, that England would not be long before it returned into the bosom of Rome.  
The French Historian, Du Chesne, Siri an Italian, the keeper of Cardinal Mazarines Library, in his book Di currenti tempi; gauge in his Expedition to the Indies, and his Voyage to Rome, discover all the Intrigues and Conferences which Cardinal Barberini, and the Jesuit Fitzherbert had at Rome, with some Deputies of England, to further and perfect the work of Englands Reduction to the obedience of the Pope: and they tell us, That the persons of greatest learning and understanding of that Communion, were much rejoiced to perceive that England gave such pledges of its return to Rome, hoping that they would be followed with a speedy and entire Union.  
But on the other hand, those of the Church of England who were sincere and uncorrupted, with some Lords, and others of the Commons then assembled in Parliament, in the year 1640, opposed the designs of the Canterburians, as they were then styled, and made loud complaints against all those that were going after the Romish way: witness the many Speeches that were then made by some of the Lords and Commons, Faulkland, Rudyer, Rouse, Dighy, &c. many of which were printed, and are full of lamentations, and demonstrations of deep sorrow, in that they perceived the Ceremonies, Doctrines and practices, so pleasing to the 〈◇〉, to be countenanced by the Bishops who then sat at the ●●rn in England. My Lord Faulkland was large upon the subject, saying, That the Bishops and their C●… ins were like to those whom Thomas Aquiras speaks of, whose design was not so much to divert men from sin, as to teach them how near they may come to the borders of it without committing it. He said, they boast of their Origine, and that they derive their succession from the Church of Rome, as if they had a desire from a principle of gratitude to return to that Religion, or that Church, from which they had departed; or else by acknowledging their error, to recede from it, and embrace that Faction which they had abandoned. He also taxes the best of them for endeavouring to introduce Popery into England, and Papal Authority; that is to say, desiring to subject the people to the Clergy, and that by a blind and absolute obedience, such as is that submission to the Pope; but he particularly declaims against the spirit of persecution and barbarity, whereby brethren rose up against brethren, and were under grievous sufferings, whilst the Papists found at least as much, if not more favour, than those who were members of their own body.  
Also there were some persons, at the time of the Convocation of the Clergy of England, although indeed not many, who did second my Lord Faulkland, as Davenant, Morton, Hall, boldly disavowing the favouring of the Doctrines and Ceremonies of the Church of Rome. Dr. Warmestry spoken against Images that were hung up in some Churches, and against Candlesticks filled with Candles, though not lighted; and he said, That they were a fit Emblem of our ignorant and unprofitable Clergy, which filled up the Candlesticks of our Churches, but gave no light.  
'tis true, the timorousness of some of the Kings of England, dreading a Dagger and Pistol, made them a little to yield, and to show favour to the Papists, which they would never have done, if they had but had the courage of Queen Elizabeth, or if they had not attempted their Lives. In the year 1599, when King James was only King of Scotland, and feared the Romish party would, if they could, hinder his succession to the Crown of England, he wrote Letters full of flattery to Clement VIII,[ Rushworths Collections, Pag. 167.] to gain his good esteem, and concluded one of them with these words, Beatitudinis tuae Obsequentissimus filius; and besides, 25 years after, the fright the King was put into by an attempt upon his person, made him to resolve a little before his death, to receive the Overtures and Propositions made him to re-establish the Romish Religion in England, as is evident by the Memoirs of Mr. D' Ageant, and of the Archbishop of Ambrune, as also by those of Mr. de Bassompierre: He wrote to Urban the eighth, Letters full of submission, in which he acknowledged the Pope to be the Vicar of Jesus Christ upon earth, and governor in chief of the catholic Church.  
Those terrors which the Pope fills the hearts of Kings withal by his cruel and devilish attempts upon their lives, have always had the same success, and have engaged Princes, either to receive, or to confirm Popery in their Dominions: Witness Henry IV of France.  
Surely it is impossible but that a Religion which is propagated by such infernal means, must be a most hellish and devilish Religion; and yet the Popes and Jesuits are furnished with no better. And this is the reason why they cannot endure Aristocratical Governments, nor Commonwealths, because where many are actually interested in the Government, they are not afraid of the three notorious Instruments of Rome, the Dagger, the Pistol, and the Poison, and so consequently cannot be obliged by such terrors to receive Popery; whereas in a Monarchical State, it is but taking away the Life of one man, and the business is done, and the scene of affairs shifted to their own purpose.  
But however, whether by dissimulation or reality, whether by fear or inclination, when once a King listens to such Proposals, and especially when a Clergy that is no violent Enemy to Rome, backs them, it is a very strong argument, and a shrewd sign that the Papists beyond-sea are in a continual expectation of Englands re-union with them.  
Now that this design of carrying on the Romish Interest, hath been strenuously pursued and advanced ever since the happy Restoration of His Sacred Majesty, by the Prelatical party, is a thing both so visible and deplorable, that it stands not in so much need of proofs, as of our tears. The good Bishop Brownrig  shed many at the foresight of it; a spirit of prophesy seizing of him some moments before his death, and a few months before the Kings Restoration, he started up one day from his Couch where he lay, out of a slumber, and broken out into these words: I am sure the King will be restored; but I foresee that at the same time he will bring along with him a Canterburian Train, that will be loathe to part with a rag of their Surplice to bind up the wounds of the Church. That sweet and mildred spirit which animated this good Bishop, was far different from that hot furious spirit of persecution which has transported his Brethren, and which has instigated them to separate from their own body so many Churches of Jesus Christ, arrogating to themselves alone the title of true Protestants, though in truth they make not up the fiftieth part of that number.  
This hath been their carriage especially towards the Churches in France: for whereas before the taking of Rochel, they were in such a flourishing condition, that the third part of the Nobility were of the Reformed Keligion; and of Eight Marshals of France, four were Protestants; yet then that Party of the Church of England which began to entertain kind thoughts of Popery, and were much inclinable to the way of Rome, did retain some respect for those Churches, and owned the Ordination of their Ministers to be good and legitimate, and they not to need any any other re-ordination.  
The Bishops, Doctors, and Professors of the Universities, did publicly own themselves to be of the same Communion with Calvin, and never mentioned his Name openly without veneration and respect: But alas! instead of things going after this manner, they quiter changed face, and turned about; and since, the flourishing state of the Church is not only upon its declension, but even upon the brink of ruin: for the Prelatical party have razed the Protestants out of the Catalogue of the Churches of Jesus Christ, for want of Episcopal Ordination. Calvin has not only lost his credit with them, but was turned into Ridicule, and looked on as a fanatic and a Rebel; the Ordination of their Ministers was adjudged null and voided. In a word, that party soon practised the maxim of Caesar Borgia, coal faelices, fuge miseros; be a friend to those in prosperity, but shun the miserable.  
It is not unworthy our observation, what my Lord Castlemain, a Roman-Catholick, and Husband to the duchess of Cleveland, mentions in his Book against Dr. Floyd, concerning this same party: Sure( saith he) those men that persecute others, are besides themselves: for if they should go but to reckon themselves up together with all their adherents, they would find they are not the sixth part of the Reformed people in England, whom they thus abuse. In pag. 18, he adds very judiciously, That they have not much reason to repreach the Roman catholics for the Parisian Massacre, that of Ireland, and the Gunpowder-Plot on the Fifth of November 1605, since that those Massacres were committed only upon those persons whom Rome had anathematized and proscribed as heretics and Apostates; and it was never known that Rome persecuted( as the Bishops do) those who adhere to the same Doctrine and Faith with themselves, and established an Irquisition against the Bigots among them, nor against the professors of the strictest piety.  
He might very well have added, That the Prelates in their proceedings have exceeded the barbarousness of the heathens in the persecution of the Christians; for instead of punishing Informers and the busy Inquisitors of Christians, whom all the world looks upon with infamy and detestation, they have put inferior Magistrates upon Rewarding those Informers, and Punishing those that refuse to execute those Severities, or are not not diligent to execute such Cruelties against Nonconformists, as could hardly be equalled by the Barbarians. Certainly Trajan used more moderation to Christians, than the Prelates do now to the people of God; for although he ordered that when the Christians were accused and condemned, they should be punished; yet he would not have them preached for: Conquerendi non sunt, si deferantur& arguantur, puniendi. In one thing they equal the Cruelty of those Pagans( and it is only for that reason) who punish Christians not for their Religion, but for their obstinacy, Plin. lib. 10. Epist. 97. Pervicam certe& inflexibilem obstinationem debere puniri, non dubitavi.  
How do they also imitate Rome in their manner of gaining Proselytes by the pleasing-bait of benefice! for it is rarely seen that any come over from Rome to the Puritan party, who have no more benefice to bestow than the Papal Councils, which made Aeneas silvius to say, That he found more persons to side with the Pope than the Councils, and who set up the Pope above Councils, than he found those that postponed the Pope to the Councils. Not but that there are some such excellent Protestants who see as much reason to abhor the ways of the Church of England, as those of Rome; and prefer a good Conscience in a meaner sphere, to all the grandeur and Pomp of the world.  
But, without a longer digression, to return to that good man before-mentioned, Bishop Brownrig, who, if he were now alive, could not be able to see this spirit of rage and cruelty, without horror, or at least without pity; and he would believe that for certain the hour of the Prince of darkness was come, or was very near, in which the Papists were ready to cut all our throats, I mean all the Protestants, without distinction of Prelates, Presbyterians, Independents, &c. And though these Enemies of our persons and Religion take advantage from our divisions, yet are not we so wise to join together in brotherly love and amity, but one party of these Protestants rises up against the two other, and persecutes them almost with as much cruelty as the Papists would exercise upon all the three, and that too for a more frivolous cause, only because( forsooth) they refuse to submit to the Ceremonies of the Church; which they themselves own to be indifferent, and in their own nature are, if not superstitious, at best impertinent, being no ways essential to salvation. And what can be more inhuman, cruel, and barbarous, than to drag Christians, Protestants, and married persons, merely upon this account, out of their houses, and to rend them from their wives and children, banishing them from their country, or transporting them as slaves into new Plantations and Colonies? as we have lately had a remarkable instance hereof in those Sixty and odd persons whose very condition this was.  
Now would not this good Bishop draw this incontestable Conclusion and Argument when he should see persons so opposite in Doctrine and Practise to the Church of Rome, used after such a barbarous manner, that the Papists have all the reason in the world to hope, and to flatter themselves that this good work( as they call it) is half done to their hand, and that it will in a short time be completed, though they should not contribute any further help, since that of those parties who make up most of the Nation, and with whom their chief concern lies, the one does so much befriend them, as to endeavour the utter destruction of the other who are their mortal enemies.  
Lastly, If this holy Bishop had lived to see the Book of another Bishop who resembles him, at least in goodness and sincerity, I mean Thomas Barlow Bishop of Lincoln; if he had, I say, seen but that Book wherein he proves with the greatest conviction in the world, That the Pope, the Religion, and the Church of Rome, are only built upon seditious and detestable Principles, cemented with lies, cheats, frauds, impostures, blood, and usurpations: surely he would have made this reflection on the carriage of his countrymen and Brethren, That this behaviour discovers them neither to have piety nor reason( if perhaps they ever had) to covet to be the Apes and imitators of those persons who have no other design in engaging them to be of their side, but only that they may the more easily cut their throats.  
Certainly, if the Learned Dean of Canterbury, Dr. Tillotson, had understood what inhuman usage those sixty and odd persons met with, and upon what score, he would not have failed in his most excellent Sermon on the fifth of November, to have put that spirit which was the promoter of that persecution, in the number of those Seven which our Lord Jesus Christ spoken of, which were worse than he that raised them: and if he condemns all fiery spirits, even towards the greatest enemies of our Lives and our Religion; Would not his heart have risen at the thoughts of such a Persecution, when of two parties that profess one and the same Faith, and who are both Protestants, one should persecute the other in a more savage and cruel manner than ever Dioclesian did the Christians.  
The present state of the Affairs of England, which promises that the next Parliament will banish out of the Kingdom this spirit of Persecution, makes me that I cannot forbear repeating the words of this worthy Doctor, to incite the Grave and Noble Senators to put on bowels of compassion, and to persuade the corrupt part of the Clergy, which is now the most prevailing with us, to lay aside their spirit of fierceness and cruelty, which hath caused the gross of the people of England for above these hundred years to groan under the yoke of Romish Ceremonies.  
His Sermon is upon the passionate behaviour and carriage of the Apostles against the Samaritans, Luke 9.55, 56, and upon their unchristian spirit and mistaken zeal; where there is a continued paraphrase on the words of our Lord Jesus Christ against this spirit of persecution: You know not what manner of spirit you are of; which is as if he had said, You own yourselves to be my disciples, but do you consider what spirit now acts and governs you? not that surely which my Doctrine designs to mould and fashion you into, which is not a furious, and persecuting, and de structive spirit; but mildred, and gentle, and saving, tender of the lives and interests of men, even of those who are our greatest Enemies: You ought to consider, that you are not now under the rough and sour dispensation of the Law, but under the calm and peaceable institution of the Gospel, to which the spirit of Elias, though he was a very good man in his time, would be altogether unsuitable; God permitted it then under that imperfect way of Religion; but now under the Gospel it would be intolerable: for that designs universal love and peace, and good will; and now no difference of Religion, no pretence of zeal for God and Christ, can warrant and justify this passionate and fierce, this vindictive and exterminating spirit.  
What shall I say of our two Universities, which in a great measure have lost their beauty since they have so greedily sucked in that poison of Pelagianism, Socinianism, and Popery? A person of great worth, and a member of their body, though he be not in their opinions, but is as Lot in Sodom;  told me, That had it not been for Dr. Tully and himself, those Heresies would have infected the whole University of Oxford; but they had some private Conferences with many of the best disposed youth, and gave them such wholesome Instructions, as might be a sufficient Medicine to preserve them from the poison of those Pestilential Heresies.  
Whosoever will take the pains to peruse a late Book in Latin called CELEUSMA, &c. which calls aloud to the honest and Orthodox Members of the Church of England, will be informed that the prevailing and most numerous party of that Church have been these twenty years endeavouring to make their advances towards Rome, and have run themselves into Pelagianism and Socinianism; scoffing at, and deriding those who get as far from Rome as they can in their Doctrine and Practise, whether they be any of their own body, or of them whom they call Presbyterians, Independents, Puritans, or Fanaticks, they have accused them all alike guilty of the death of that Royal Martyr Charles the first of happy memory. Their Books are and have been a constant satire and invective against the sincere and irreproachable piety of the Puritans; and after a most blasphemous manner do Dr. Parker, Sherlock, Serivener, Hickringill, George Bull, Wetenhall, Bramhall, Ignatius Fuller, &c. speak against God and his Saints.  
Dr. Patrick( and he is one of the best among a hundred of them) joins hands with them in burlesquing upon the Doctrine of Imputative Righteousness, and of that fiduciary relying and recumbency of a poor sinner upon the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. I will city you some passages in his Book called the Pilgrim, for the proof of this: A modish and courtly saith it is, which sits still, and yet sits you in the lap of Christ; it passes under so many names, that I cannot stand to number them all now. It is called a casting of ourselves upon Christ, a relying on his Mercies, shrouding ourselves under the rob of his righteousness; and though sometimes it is called a going to him for salvation, yet there is this mystery in the business, that you may go, and yet not go; you may go, and yet stand still; you may cast yourself upon him, and not come to him; or, if you take one little step, and be at the pains to come to him, the work is done, and you need not follow him: it is indeed a resting, not a traveling grace; and such a grand secret there is in it, that a man may rest before he stirs a foot; he may lean on Christ, and approach no nearer him than he was before; he may lay hold on him, and yet remain at a great distance from him; it will carry you to the end of the way, before you are at the beginning; the very first step is to stay yourself; the very beginning of its motion, is to be at rest. Do you not see a strange enchantment in it already? Is it not a Magical operation, or much beholding to strength of fancy, and the Witchcraft of imagination? For my part, I should take myself to be in a worse condition than Cresinius was, if I should be accused of vending such drugs, and dealing in such dangerous charms. I would grant that my enemies had cause to exclaim, and should never expect to clear myself, if I should be charged with such incantations: There is no juggling so artificial whereby I could hope to hid the deceit, if I abused the world with these Impostures. All the lewd men in the world are well content to take this journey, which may be finished atone step.  
He goes on in the same strain: There is not a soul so wicked ( says he) but fancies all his sins are covered by Christ his righteousness: it is the sweetest thing in the world to cast themselves into Christ his arms, and expect not to go, but to be carried to heaven.  
And pag. 143, 144, he laughs at such notions, how that believing is nothing else but a relying on Jesus Christ for salvation, a fiducial recumbency upon him, a casting ourselves wholly upon him, and his merits, or an applying of his righteousness to our souls: and if you throw all other phrases after him( one would think he means the low Proverb of throwing old shoes after one) which tell us it is a taking of Christ, a laying hold of him, a closing with him, you shall do the better, and more certainly secure yourself from being deceived. Sure this Doctor either did never red, or at that time think of Jacobs wrestling with the Angel, whom he would not let go before he had blessed him.  
But above all, in pag. 149, he turns into raillery that holy Doctrine of the Protestants concerning justification by faith, and the righteousness of Jesus Christ which is imputed to us in the manner as it is established, not only in the holy Scripture, but explained and made clear by the first Reformers, and by the Authors of the Articles of the English Confession, and of the Homilies by Calvin, Martyn, Beza, &c. in this cited place, he compares the reliance upon Christ his righteousness and merits, with a persons relying upon his Masters Merits, and depending only on the worth and sufficiency of his Lord; he trusts in his goodness for the pardon of all his faults, and hopes he will esteem him a good servant, because he is a good Master; he leans upon his arms, and closes fast about him, and is resolved not to let him go, till he hath paid him his wages; he embraces him kindly, and hopes he will account him righteous, because he is so himself; and in a word, he applies to himself all the good works his Master has performed; and preys to be excused if he doth not his business, because his Lord can do it better.  
Was ever the Play called the Cheat, or the Bartholomew-Fair by Ben Johnson, or the Friendly Debate, filled with worse scurrilous and venomous stuff than these are? Who would think that such sweet and honey-mouths, had so much of gull in the heart?  
To be short, Dr. Patrick makes no other account of justification by faith, but of an hearty assent to the truth of the Gospel, and an endeavouring to live according to it.  
If that Doctor, who resembles Gregory the first, the best of bad Popes, and the worst of good ones, does in so erroneous a manner run away from the Church of England, as it was about a hundred years ago, and from all the Protestant Divines, as well Lutherans as Calvinists, as well English as French; What sinister judgement may be made of a hundred of his colleagues, who are much inferior to him both in the profession of holiness of Doctrine, and of Life?  
I would take for example Dr. Jeremy tailor, Bishop in Ireland, one of the most learned men that England or Ireland ever produced, but yet who is the same; or rather vies with Dr. Patrick, about the Doctrines that are quiter different from the first Reformation in the time of King Edward the sixth, for he denies Original sin; he says with the Poet, — Lex est non poena perire. That death is a Law of Nature, and not a punishment of sin. That Concupiscence is not a sin, neither in those who are baptized, nor in those who are not. He establishes the works of Supererogation, and the conjunction of the grace of God with the strength of man, which give their mutual assistance to the working of mans salvation. And in p. 258. of his Liberty of prophesying, he has such expressions as would make one almost to question whether he believed the Trinity or not: for there he tells us, That the Trinity is, as much as Transubstantiation, contrary to reason either natural or supernatural: An assertion as false as is the Turkish Alcoran; for the Holy Trinity is as much grounded on reason, as the three Faculties, the Vegetative, the Sensitive, and the Intellectual; which being really and distinctly in Man, do nevertheless act, and are moved by one and the same principle. But he has set forth a large Book, where he strongly proves, That Religion ought not to be established by persecution; for it is contrary to the very spirit and temper of Christianity.  
Wherein the Doctor's conduct has been diametrically opposite to the carriage of those who are joined with him in the design and endeavour of his getting near to Rome: for these, at the same time that they have made shipwreck concerning the Faith, as the Apostle speaks, have broken off all Charity towards their Brethren, and have clothed themselves with the spirit of animosity, malignity, and persecution; and, after they have abandoned God and his truth, they've revenged themselves of that loss, by that of love and affection towards those, whose purity of Doctrine, and holiness of life have been a continual reproach and eye-sore to them, {αβγδ}, which is a thing that Dr. tailor has never done: for how erroneous soever that Doctor was as to matter of Doctrine, he was yet endowed with two very excellent qualities; the one, that he was of a most exemplary life, as he did sufficiently testify it in his carriage, and by his Writings; the other, that he had an affectionate tenderness, and love, and pity, for those who did not agree with him either in the profession of the same doctrine, or in the practise of Ceremonies; in which he differed very much from his brethren in the work of the Ministry, who satisfy themselves with the profession of a superficial piety; who easily do digest and swallow non-residency, plurality of benefice, and preaching by a deputy, and the divertisement of the Play-house, or of a pack of Cards; and who insult over such as Baxter, own, Annesly, Jenkins, Bates, Watson, How, and the rest, for driving men to desperation, and so to hell, by too rigorously pressing the practise of piety. That is the Irarum causa,& hinc illae lachrymae; and why they mortally hate those holy persons. But I cannot but strangely wonder why they do not put St. Paul amongst such desperate Divines, from whose mouth and pen issued forth more severe and thundering doctrines and menaces than ever came from Mr. Baxter, &c. and that they do not blot out of their Bibles this holy apostles rousing saying, 2 Cor. 5.10, That we must all appear before the judgement-seat of Christ, that every one may receive according to that he hath done, whether it be good or evil. And who tells us, That those that live after the flesh, shall die; and who teacheth no other doctrine than that of the Lord Jesus Christ, That at the day of judgement we must answer for every idle thought and word: and except we be converted, and our righteousness exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, we shall by no means enter into the Kingdom of heaven.  
But yet there is nothing that more evidently discovers the carriage of these corrupt Church of England men, than the due consideration of those whom they persecute, as to their temper, conduct, and behaviour; those have remained still the same: or if they have changed, it has been from good to better: they have always been retreating farther from the doctrines and practices of the Romanists, as the others have been advancing nearer to them. None can find any weakness in their reasons, error in their doctrine or practices, not in the many Remonstrances they have made to the Bishops: In the conferences they have had with them, it was not truth, nor reason, nor sincerity prevailed, but the best sword, or stoutest lungs, or he that stood on the highest ground magnifying his capacity with his pluralities and dignities, that carried the day.  
The word of God and right reason, were the foundation that these built their discourses on, in opposition to the imposing of Ceremonies, and the practices of Rome, the force of which could never be enervated, but has remained unmovable for these hundred years.  
That the Constitutions and Inventions of men, grounded on the will of man, and not upon any civil necessity, or divine right, the practise of which are commanded in the outward service of God, upon pain of excommunication, and being put out ab officio& beneficio, are contrary to the second Commandment; and as the Church of England hath renounced communion with the Church of Rome in matters of doctrine, she ought also upon the same ground both of prudence and conscience, to refuse all other conformity with her, since that the same cause which moves us to quit whatsoever is corrupted in the Doctrine, should also oblige us to abandon whatsoever is superstitious in the service and discipline of Rome; at least what shocks weak and tender consciences, and which are owned to be things purely indifferent, by those that so rigorously impose them.  
The force of the argument which is used to prove that kneeling at the Sacrament is a sin, could never yet be refuted by those that are the subtlest advocates of that practise.  
If that which is of divine institution, as was the brazen Serpent, ought to be taken away when once it began to be abused to Idolatry; by a Reason then a fortiori, kneeling at the Sacrament should be laid aside, which not only has took its origine from an abominable doctrine, but is of human institution, and which was never practised either by Jesus Christ, or by the Church, for above 1200 years; and which in one word is a natural consequence of Transubstantiation: Not to instance how ridiculous and foolish the Papists themselves do account kneeling, where there is no object of adoration and worship; and how they reckon us as either profane, or not well in our senses, to perform such acts with regard only to elements, which are no more the objects of worship, than was the garlic and Onions of Egypt; and by this kneeling the Papists are more confirmed in the belief of Transubstantiation; and that they have good reason to ask us these questions.  
If at the Sacrament you worship as we do, why do not you believe as we do, the same object of Adoration?  
If you are not of the same belief with us, why have you retained a posture of body that presupposes it?  
What mean those Altars you have set up in Churches, towards which you so reverently bow, if you would not have us to understand that your prostrations are carried out to something that is sacrificed upon those Altars?  
Among the many absurdities which attend this kneeling, this is not the least, that it destroys the nature of the communion which is between Christ and his members, or at least is most unsuitable to it; for the Lords Supper is an exact representation of that holy oil of Aaron that run down from his beard to the skirts of his garment; of that friendship and love which binds all the members of Christs body mystical together, of what condition soever they be, whether King or subjects, Nobles or peasants, Masters or servants, bond or free, and of that brotherhood and familiarity that is among guests who are all equally invited to set down at the same Table with the same freedom as St. John had to lay his head in Christs bosom, and Lazarus in that of Abraham. This Communion, I say, on earth, is but a resemblance of that state into which we shall be translated in the Kingdom of Heaven, where all the faithful shall sit down with Jesus Christ, and with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and with the Prophets and Apostles, where their posture is not that of prostrate suppliants, but of such as are at rest, and in full liberty, satiating themselves in the contemplation of all the glorious and incomprehensible perfections of the Divinity: for what is the Eucharist but an Ordinance of joy and satisfaction, of union and vision? To conclude, since the Lord Jesus Christ represents to us the act of believing in him, for the application of the promises, and receiving his benefits into our souls, by eating and drinking, as sitting at his table; how shall we imagine, that he who invites you to his table, expects that you should kneel before his table, and so eat and drink in that posture? The Parallel holds exactly with reference to this spiritual feast unto which the Lord Jesus Christ invites all his disciples.  
No wonder then so many refuse to submit to this posture, as also to that of bowing at the name of Jesus in the Church, having no other argument for it than the 2 Chap. of the Epistle to the philippians, At the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow. Which devotion of theirs, in pulling off the hat every time the word Jesus is pronounced, saith the Elder Dr. Du-Moulin in his 7th Decade, Sermon 8. I should not so much reprehend, if they did manifest the same respect to the name of Christ or God.  
But to do the Dissenters right, herein they are very Orthodox, whilst with John Hales, Dr. Stillingfleet, and Monsieur claud in his Letter to Monsieur Michaely, they affirm that the Schism is only chargeable on those who impose the Ceremonies, and not on those that refuse to use them. If one party, saith Monsieur claud, being in power, would constrain the other against their conscience and judgement, in matters of indifference, as are the points which now make all the disorder in England, the schism is certainly on their side. And it was an excellent saying, that which is Mr. Robert Jennison's second Narrative, pag. 41. 'tis not he that taketh, but that administereth the occasion, who is the true and proper schismatic.  
Nor are they to be blamed in this particular, in condemning with the same Monsieur claud the opinion of the validity and lawfulness of the Romish Ordination: whereas all good Protestants hold Rome to be the Mother of Abominations, and the great scarlet Whore; but on the other hand they reject the call of all Protestant Ministers, who receive the Imposition of hands out of England, as voided and null, unless it be by the hands of the Bishops.  
But I find that there is nothing does more condemn the conduct of the Conformists in pressing submission to the Hierarchy, and to the Ceremonies of the Church of England under the penalty of deprivation ab officio& beneficio, and being made uncapable of both; and which stands more up in the justification of that of the Nonconformists in their refusing; There is nothing, I say, does more condemn the one, and justify the other, than that which happened about 34 years ago at Oxford, which was then all Prelatical. As therefore those who were then in power, imposed upon the Oxford-men the Covenant, if they meant to keep their places; All the University joined to publish a Book entitled Oxford-Reasons, to show the injustice of imposing the Covenant upon such conditions that were unreasonable, and to prove the reasonableness of their refusing; making use of such cogent arguments, proofs and reasons, that have been alleged, and used above these 100 years by the Nonconformists, for their refusing to subscribe to the Hierarchy, and to the Ceremonies, and which must be of equal weight and strength in the mouths of one party as well as anothers. They of Oxford thus wind up their Reasons.  
Thus we have clearly and freely represented our present judgement, which upon better information in any particular, we shall be ready to rectify; only we desire that it may be considered, that if any one single person remain unsatisfied( though we should receive satisfaction in all the rest) and in that it cannot neither be reasonable for them to press us, nor lawful for us that cannot be satisfied to submit unto the said Covenant.  
What they say, that although all the University should acquiesce and submit to the reasons which are alleged to persuade them to take the Covenant, and there should be but one single person that cannot yield to it, it would neither be justice nor reason so to press, and punish this single person, who should not submit: This argument, I say, is incomparably more strong, having respect to many thousands of persons, who for above this 100 years have refused their submission to the Hierarchy, and to the Ceremonies, than only respecting the University of Oxford; and this same argument is no less applicable to those who are in power at this day, for their obstinacy and rigour in persecuting so many persons, because of their Non-submission, as it was then. I might insist by arguments that come very near to a demonstration, to prove, that those whom they odiously distinguish by the names of Puritans, Presbyterians, Independents, Fanaticks, Rebels, Sons of Belial, King's Murtherers, &c. are the best Christians, the best Protestants, the best English men, the most loyal Subjects, the greatest Pillars, but tresses and supporters of Monarchy, and of the Government by King, Lords and Commons; and that they are the greatest Promoters of Religion, Peace, and Piety, against those that endeavour to bring in Tyranny and Popery; at least, a mongrel one, that comes pretty near to the true Popery.  
But this Matter would hold me too long, and therefore I shall reduce what I have to say here, to three Arguments.  
1. The secret hatred, malice, grudge, and core against those whom they thus distinguish, and against the Piety which they profess in a more exact and sincere manner, and whose life is a continual practise of Repentance.  
2. Another argument, to prove that their cause is that of honest godly men, and those that have better intentions than they who speak of them with so much disadvantage, to wit, those are wont to involve the best men beyond Seas, the best Divines, and the first Reformers, as Calvin, Beza, &c. in the same guilt of fanatics, Sons of Belial, as being Partners with them, and Countenancers of Rebellion and Jesuitical Principles, against the Government and Lives of Kings.  
3. Those who thus characterise the Religion of these Puritans and Fanaticks, for being so taken up with Faith, that they have no room for Charity, and good works, are all besides the cushion; for, on the contrary, those that put so much stress upon saith, and so little upon good works, are those who live far otherwise than they, in the exact and exemplary practise of good works; as on the other hand, those who do most enervate justifying faith, and the imputative righteousness of Jesus Christ, by the mere grace of God without works, and who so highly magnify and extol justification by works, are those who are most loose and negligent in the practise of good works, and who, if Ministers, make it no scruple of conscience to possess several benefice, and not to reside in one of them, but to Preach in them by hireling-Deputies.  
'tis true, those of that corrupted part, which they call the Church of England, notwithstanding they make great advances towards Rome, and bear a secret affection and good will to his Holiness the Pope; yet they will not endure to be called Papists, but Protestants; but also being loth to be Partners in the name of those they are so set against, they declare aloud to the world, That they are the only Protestants, and who deserve that name exclusively and privitavely from the rest; and this is much what the same with that which Dodwell tells us, when he confines them within the trub Church of Jesus Christ, who have an Episcopal Ordination, that is to say, in 5 or 600 persons that are such as those that are marked in the worst Column of the Celeusma.  
Having hitherto spoken of the good conduct, and the strong and rational arguments of the Nonconformists in the behalf of themselves, and of their way; some might expect perhaps I should recite what the Conformists can say for themselves, that is, to oppose the unreasonableness of their carriage, and the Arguments of the Conformists for themselves: but all they can say, is their mere will, and they make their arguments in Ferio and Barbara, the best Sword, that of the Romish Church, their grandeur Authority, Gold and Silver, rich Revenues.  
And those who will take the pains to red diligently, with an unbiased judgement, disentangled from all the tempting baits of the Church of England, those Treatises which the Conformists have published against the Nonconformists for the justifying of their Ceremonies, and the imposing them on no less penalty than excommunication, suspension, and deposition, will soon find that that spirit which animates the Authors of them, is not as Dr. Tillotson says, that of Christianity, which is a spirit of meekness, gentleness, and easy to be entreated; but that of St. Paul before his conversion, full of malignity, revenge, and persecution. But there cannot be found in all their arguments which they use for their Ceremonies, and their rigorous imposing of them, any good sense, or solid reason. I am sure that which Archbishop Laud alleged for the justifying of the erection of Altars in Churches, and for their prostrations and bowings to them, is a very extravagant one; as you may see in his Speech delivered in the Star-Chamber in the year 1638. where he said, That at our coming into, and going out of the Church, and also in continuing there, we ought to give more respect to the Altar, than to the Minister's Pulpit; because with reference to the latter it can only be said, hoc est verbum meum; but as to the other it is said, hoc est corpus meum, this is my body; which, saith he, is beyond all comparison more to be reverenced than the word.  
Now, Sir, to close up this discourse, from what has been said, be pleased to deduce these two consequences.  
1. That though the first Authors of the Reformation in England did very innocently retain some Ceremonies and practices of the Church of Rome, with an intention and hopes, that their Successors would afterwards abolish them; yet that, they not being removed, hath fed the Papists with a great presumption, that the Church of England might easily allow of more, and so pass on from a liking and approving of them, to an embracing and receiving of their Doctrines.  
2. That though it be granted( as I am apt to believe, not only from a principle of Charity, but upon good solid Reasons) that the Prelatical party of England, how corrupt soever they are in their Doctrine and Morals, and whatsoever inclination they might have to the Church of Rome, never had any design, nor so much as a thought to bring Popery into England by such detestable ways, as of late have been attempted to introduce it: Yet notwithstanding it is most certain, that if they had but kept as great a distance from Rome, as the Puritans, or as the other Protestants of Europe, or at least but as much as the sober Conformists of England, the Papists would never have dreamed of bringing in their Religion by such a horrid, damnable, and hellish Conspiracy as has of late been most wonderfully and happily found out.  
For seeing nothing in their way to hinder their design from taking effect, but the Life of His most Sacred Majesty; and besides, understanding the miserable and low condition of the Scots, how uncapable to give any assistance; and that Ireland is now become almost absolutely all Papists, the prevailing party of the Church of England ready to receive them; the mortal hatred between them and the Nonconformists, and the confidence they have of a successor to the Crown fitted for their purpose: All these considerations, I say, have given fair leave to the Devil to work his ends on us, and to reduce England to the Communion of Rome by the death of the King.  
As to the zeal and passion, which many, even of the Prelatical party, have testified at this time against the Papists, it must be confessed they do it not altogether without reason; for commonly the greatest friends become irreconcilable enemies, when those bonds that kept them together, come to be dissolved. Proximorum odia acerrima; when it once comes to the dividing of the spoil, one of them will have all, or nothing: the great benefice of their best friends in the Church of England are little worth, if they are not worth the pains they take to get into the possession of them by Murders and Assassinations. So that before Rome and this party fell out about sharing of the prey, it was thought in all probability their friendship would remain inviolable, and they persweded themselves that the Papists would think themselves very happy in having re-established their Religion in England, without ever wishing for the fat and rich benefice from those that enjoyed them; but the Papists meant clear another matter; for they would have all, or nothing; and do as the Abbot of Beziers, who besieging a Town, during the Wars with the Waldenses, in which there was a great number both of friends and enemies, and the Soldiers and Officers making a conscience of inveloping their friends in the destruction of their Enemies: he cried out to them, Kill all, kill all, God knows who are his. If the Clergy of Rome would not have spared the life of the King, much less would they have been in humour to spare the Lives and the benefice of their good Friends the Bishops, the Deans, and the Canons. Whence we may say, hinc illae lachrymae; for this was it that touched them to the quick with a Jehu's zeal; and they look upon the design they had to put them out of their benefice, as a most horrible crime, and which would be no less abominable, than the sending of Kings out of the world by poison, Dagger, or Pistol. So that the best interpretation that can be made of their present carriage, is, that the love they have for their benefice and preferments, for their bishoprics, Deaneries, and Prebendaries, hath sufficiently awakened them, and sharpened their hatred, and raised their indignation against Rome, and at the present, at least, hath made them to forget their former engagement.   

A Confirmation of the precedent Discourse, drawn from several Passages out of the Irenicum, A Weapon-Salve for the Churches Wounds, written by Edward Stillingfleet, D. D. Dean of Saint Pauls, Canon of Canterbury, and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Most Sacred Majesty.  
foreseing that those who have a prejudice to my person, and to all the Books I have put forth for this 40 years, upon two Subjects, viz. the Ecclesiastical Power and Excommunication; and upon the Church of England, might probably hinder that success I look for from all the Truths in this precedent Discourse of the several Advances the Church of England hath made towards Rome. I found myself obliged to give them the best Authority I could; and I thought that would be incontestable, which I should derive and take from the most eminent Divine of the Church of England, whose Decisions are at this day looked upon as Decrees and Axioms, in this part of the World separated from the rest, as those of Calvin in the other; and to make the World know I have written nothing, either in this precedent discourse, or in any other that I have put out upon those two Subjects I have but now mentioned, which is not absolutely conformable to the sense and Opinion of this great man, whose Authority, I hope, will be a sufficient shelter for me to keep off those terrible accusations and imputations, which would make ones Ears tingle to hear, and yet with which I am overwhelmed: as to be actuated and influenced by an evil Spirit; to be born for the destruction of the Church of God; and to be the great enemy of the Church of England: The authority of this Doctor will sand back that exhortation to one of the Canons of Canterbury, who, after he had given me to understand that I, above all the men upon the face of the Earth, had a great Account to make to Almighty God, for having defamed and vilified the Church of England, both by my Words, and by my Writings, exhorted me with as much kindness and affection for my Soul, as zeal for his Church, seriously to repent of it before I dyed.  
I observe then in the first place, that Doctor Stillingfleet's Book is built upon the same Hypothesis, as the edisice of my Parenesis is, and that it is a perpetual overthrowing of those two Hypotheses which have brought Popery into the world, and with it disorder, Atheism, corruption both of the Doctrine of J. C. and of good manners, division among the faithful, attempts upon the lives of Kings, Murders and Massacres of Christian People.  
The first Hypothesis is, That the Government of the Church is distinct from the republic.  
And the second, which is the Paraphrase of the former, to know that it is the Will of God, that the World, and every Territory, should be governed by two sovereign Powers, Collateral and independent, the one from the other.  
For the overthrowing of these Maxims, our Doctor gives no other authority to Pastors and Ministers, than that of persuasion, and to declare to men in the quality of Ambassadors of J. C. his will, to convince them of the truth, and of the goodness of Christian Religion, and to bring them to the study and practise of Piety. He strongly establishes this principle, that as the Church, whether particular or National, as to discipline and outward government, is a Body politic( in that manner that Optatus Millevitanus, whom the Doctor often alleges, 
Lib. 2. c. Parenen.  says, Ecclesia est in Republica) so that there is no other governor in Chief than the Magistrate, or some Authority taken up by the consent of the Churches, which is Magistratical.  
He says, page. 47. That though the constitutions and persons determining them, and the matter of them, be Ecclesiastical, yet nevertheless the force and ground of those constitutions, and the obligation to be obedient to them, is purely civil, and that of Subjects to a Magistrate. And for this he alleges Peter Martyr, saying, 
In 1 Sam. 8. loc. come. Class. 4. c. 5. f. 11.  Quod ad potestatem Ecclesiasticam attinet, satis est civilis Magistratus, That as to that command made often to the people of God, Heb. 13.17. &c. Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your Souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you: those words do not import any submission to their jurisdiction, but to the word of God.  
In page. 48, he says, he only hath power to oblige, who hath power to punish, upon disobedience, and none hath power to punish, but the Civil Magistrate. I speak of legal penalties, which are annexed to such Laws as concern the Church. Now there being no coercive or coactive power belonging to the Church, as such, all the force of such Laws, as respect the outward polity of the Church, must be derived from the Civil Magistrate.  
In page. 127. he says, That when the Church is incorporated into the Common-wealth: the chief Authority in a Common-wealth, as Christian, belongs to the same to which it doth as a Common-wealth.  
In the pages 225 and 227, he understands the Dic Ecclesiae, Tell the Church, in the same manner with Drusius. And he acknowledges that Bishop Bilson understood by those words, Let him be to thee, &c. that the party offended ought to have recourse to the Civil Magistrate.  
In page. 177, he says, That whether any shall succeed the Apostles in Superiority of Power over Presbyters, or all remain governing the Church in an equality of Power, is no where determined by the Will of Christ in Scripture, which contains his Royal Law: and therefore we have no reason to look upon it as any thing flowing from the power and authority of Christ as Mediator; and so not necessary binding Christians.  
In page. 413, and elsewhere, he mightily confirms the equality of Pastors, and assures us, that the Episcopal Men cannot show by the Word of God, neither by the practise of the Apostles, nor so much as by that of the Primitive Church, that a Minister of J.C. hath had any superintendance over several private Churches, or that a Bishop hath ordained Ministers by his sole and pure authority, as is now practised in England; or that he who is not naturally invested with any authority, should have the power to delegate others, and much more secular persons.  
In page. 393, &c. he declares that it was the opinion of that glorious Martyr Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, and of all other first Reformers, and shows that they all agreed in the sense of Cranmer, whose very words the Doctor hath taken with his own hand.  
1. That the Excommunications and Ecclesiastical Censures, are only the Declarations of private Sentiments, unless they receive the Sanction of the Civil Magistrate, and he authorises them.  
2. That when there was no Christian Civil Magistrate, in the time of the Apostles, the consent of the multitude of Brethren, was in the room and stead of a Civil Magistrate.  
3. That the Election of Pastors by the People, is the true and only Ordination which God approves of, unless the People do extend their power above the civil Magistrate: that notwithstanding, this Election cannot be made without their consent.  
4. That there is no more promise of God, that Grace is given in the committing of the Ecclesiastical Office, than it is in the committing of the Civil: for also, if this assertion were true under the economy of the Law: it is no less true under that of the Gospel. For those received benediction as much who were admitted into Offices of the republic of Israel, by the Imposition of Hands, as those who took upon them the cares of the Church.  
He concludes the discourse of Cranmer with these words, We see by the testimony of him who was Instrumental in our Reformation, that he owned not Episcopacy, as a distinct Order from Presbytery, of Divine Right; but only as a prudent constitution of the Civil Magistrate, for the better governing in the Church.  
The Preface which he has put at the beginning of his excellent Book, is a most complete piece, and is the Idea of his whole Book.  
He takes for the Model of a perfect Government of the Church, that which the Archbishop of Armagh hath made, and from which Joseph Hall does not much differ, but which have but little, if any agreement, with the present Government of the Church of England; although three of our Doctors( I mean, the Dean of Canterbury, a reverend Doctor and Cannon of his chapter, and Doctor Floyd) have declared in print, and have confidently assured us, that the government of the Church of England, as it is at this day established, is more conformable to the practise of the apostolic and Primitive Church, than any other government in the world.  
Thus, you see, the effect and right of possession, which the learned English-men of the Bar tell us, of twelve arguments which are alleged in favour of those who have it, that is, in the room of eleven indisputable ones.  
But Doctor Stillingfleet( though he believes that the Government without Bishops is most conformable to the practise of the Apostles) finds inconveniences in every Government, especially that of the Church of England. As,  
1. That the Primitive Government was Aristocratical, whereas that of the Church of England in every diocese, is Monarchical.  
2. That the Primitive Church makes the Union, and Uniformity of Churches, to consist in one and the same Faith, and not in one and the same Discipline: and that in many Towns and Villages many particular Churches differ one from the other, and from the metropolitan, in customs and Ceremonies.  
3. That as the same Ceremonies were not imposed every where; so neither were the Pastors nor Churches punished, for taking the liberty to govern themselves according to their own way and Fancy.  
He alleges Casaubon for the proof of the first Article, Exercit. 15. Sect. 11. Episcopi in singulis Ecclesiis constituti, cum suis Presbyteriis& propriam sibi quisque peculiari cura Ecclesiam,& universam omnes in commune curantes, admirabilis cujusdam Aristocratiae speciem referebant. For he would have every Bishop to have a Presbytery fixed, certain and sure, without which, as Saint Cyprian saith, the Bishop can do nothing.  
We red in this admirable Preface, a Lesson which may be of excellent use and service to the Papists, That in the Primitive Church, the Christian Religion enlarged itself, not in shedding Christian blood, by Murders and Massacres, but in pouring it out for the testimony of Jesus Christ.  
And his words are so pathetical and prevailing with me, that I cannot possibly forbear inserting them, says he, If a spirit of meekness, gentleness, and condescension, if a stooping to the weakness and infirmities of others, if a pursuit after peace when it flies from us, be the indispensible duties, and the characteristical notes of those who have more then the name of Christians, it may possibly prove a difficult inquest to find out such, for the crowds of those who shelter themselves under that glorious name. Whence came it else to be so lately looked on as the way to advance Religion, to banish peace, and to reform mens manners, by taking away their lives? whereas in those pure and primitive times, when Religion did truly flourish, it was accounted the greatest instance of the piety of Christians, not to fight but to die for Christ. It was never thought then that Bellona was a Nursing Mother to the Church of God, nor Mars a God of Reformation. Religion was then propagated, not by Christians shedding the blood of others, but, by laying down their own. They thought there were other ways to a Canaan of Reformation besides the passing through a Wilderness of Confusion, and a Red-Sea of Blood. Origen could say of the Christians in his time, 
C. Celsum l. 3.  {αβγδ}. They had not yet learnt to make way for Religion into mens minds by the dint of the Sword, because they were the Disciples of that Saviour, who never pressed followers, as men do Souldiers, but said, if any man will come after me, let him take up his across ( not his Sword) and follow me. His was {αβγδ}, his very commands shew'd his meekness; his Laws were sweet and gentle Laws; not like Draco's, that were writ in blood, unless it were his own that gave them. Thus he.  
To draw towards an end, our Doctor's Book testifies no less conformity to this subject I have been upon of the Church of Englands advances to Rome, than that which is the chief matter of my Book, concerning the Power Ecclesiastical: for that Book contains all the considerable Truths which I have here delivered in this, and which are applicable to the present posture of Affairs in this Kingdom.  
He says in page. 65, and elsewhere, That he must needs be a great stranger in the History of the Primitive Church, that takes not notice of the great diversity of Rites and Customs used in particular Churches, without any censuring those who differed from them; or if any by inconsiderate zeal did proceed so far, how ill it was resented by other Christians. 
Euseb. l. 5. Socra. Hist. Eccles. l. 5. c. 23.  As Victors excommunicating the Quarto Decimani for which he is so sharply reproved by Irenaeus, who tells him, that the primitive Christians, who differed in such things, did not use to abstain from one anothers communion for them. As Socrates tells us, Those that agree in the same Faith, may differ among themselves in their Rites and Customs.  
In page. 66, he says, We see the primitive Christians did not make so much of any Uniformity in Rites and Ceremonies: nay, I scarce think any Churches in the Primitive times can be produced, that did exactly in all things observe the same Customs: which might especially be an argument of moderation in all, as to these things, but especially in pretended admirers of the primitive Church.  
I conclude with a known saying of Austin, Indignam est ut propter ea quae nos Deo neque digniores neque indigniores possunt facere, alii alios vel condemnemus, vel judicemus. It is an unworthy thing for Christians to condemn and judge one another, for those things which do not further us at all in our way to Heaven.  
Again, he says, in page. 109. Every Christian is bound to adhere to that Church, which appears most to retain its Evangelical purity.  
In page. 121. He testifies his Opinion to run parallel with that of Mr. John Hales of Schism, p. 8. That wheresoever false, or suspected, Opinions are made a piece of Church Liturgy, he that separates is not the schismatic; and he that separates because he cannot in conscience comform and submit to the Ceremonies imposed is not the schismatic, but that the Schism lies at their door who impose them. In the same place also he says, I hope God will one day convince men, that the Union of the Church lies more in the Unity of Faith and Affection, than in the Uniformity of doubtful Rites and Ceremonies.  
In page. 122. he says, that certainly those holy men, who did seek by any means to draw in others at such a distance from their Principles as the Papists were, did never intend by what they did for that end to exclude any truly tender Consciences from their Communion. That which they laid as a bait for them, was never intended by them as a Hook for those of their own profession. But when the first Reformers retained some Ceremonies they never designed to impose them on the Protestants, and to treat them ill if they would not comply with them, but they thought thereby to draw over the Papists to their Communion.  
He is very large upon this subject, and he condemns the procedure of his Church towards those who separate them from their Communion, as being very unjust, and indeed no better than a high piece of cruelty, that they should have less kindness and condescension for their Brethren and Friends, who are of the same Faith, and of the same Profession, and their Compatriots, than for the Papists, who are their Enemies, and Strangers to them in every respect; and he clearly and fully makes it evident, that their Brethren do nothing but what the first Reformers had in prospect, when, to draw over the Papists to their Religion, they did retain some of their Ceremonies; and that, if they were now alive, they would think they should have incomparably much more reason to induce them to quit those Ceremonies, than to retain them, after they had seen they were a Rock of Offence to their Brethren, and that they rather driven the Protestants to the Religion of the Papists, than those to that of the Protestants. In a word, he acknowledges that this procedure of his Brethren of the Church of England is a mark of the Wrath of God upon the Nation; and he, with sighs, considers that invincible Spirit of Stubborness and Obstinacy which actuates and influences them, and which removes from them all thoughts of Peace and Reconciliation; and having had for above this hundred years more than twice as many opportunities to procure them, even in a very small time, by moderating the rigour and severity in imposing those Practices and Remish Ceremonies, which they themselves place among the indifferent Constitutions, and those which are not at all necessary, they notwithstanding choose rather to perpetuate Discord and Confusion.  
In page. 123. he says. That the Pastors of the Church of England are infinitely more obliged to have more kindness for their Brethren, than for the Papists, and rather to bend and yield to the Infirmity and Weakness( if it be one) of their Compatriots and Brethren, than to Rome, who accounts us all as heretics and Apostates, and so deals with us, in perfecuting us continually with most dreadful Murders and Massacres.  
To shut up all, this strange odness and unaccountable humour of Judgments, that the same thing which shall be done or said by the learned Dr. Stillingfleet, and by me, shall have all the esteem imaginable by those who are his Votaries and Admirers, whose great worth and Abilities is not a little advanced by the splendour of his Fortune, but shall be had in the basest contempt and scorn by those who consider it comes from me, who perhaps may be looked upon as inconsiderable in judgement and Learning as I am low in Condition: This strange odness of Judgments, I say, is applicable to what I have red in one of Pliny's Epistles, Epist. 24. lib. 6. multum interest quid a quoque fiat; eadem enim facta claritate aut obscuritate facientium, aut tolluntur altissime aut humillime deprimuntur.  
FINIS.   

The POSTSCRIPT.  
SInce my Letter was printed, with the Confirmation of those matters it contained, by the Testimony of the Learned Dr. Stillingfleet, some persons of merit and quality accused me of prevarication, in that I had not done this great Doctor Justice, because I had produced and quoted him when he was under error, and not in the time that he made his retractations; which, say they, do no more lessen and extenuate his Wisdom, and Conduct, nor do they any more tax him of Inconstancy, than the Retractations of S. Austin prejudiced his great desert and worth; that my procedure has been as unjust as that would have been of a Manichen, who, to justify his error and heresy should produce S. Austin, before he was Orthodox, for the establishing that Opinion of Manes.  
But if I do not Dr. Stillingfleet justice, I am very well assured that those who force me, for my justification, to lay open his inequalities and unsteadiness, do not do him any kindness; for, besides his not having ever yet retracted his Irenicum, as to that which concerns the Ecclesiastical Power and Excommunication, you are desired to take notice, that all the things which I allege from him for the confirmation of my precedent discourse, were his own sentiments and then real thoughts and opinion, when he was in the flower of his age, in all the ripeness and maturity of judgement and learning, and when he had only one Pastoral Cure at Sutton in the County of Bedford, about eighteen years since. That he spoken then in all the truth and sincerity imaginable, being not blinded with the gaudy lustre of a magnificent Fortune, which is apt to tempt the best men to change Opinions. 'twas then that he affirmed with great assurance, that the Presbyterian Government, in the equality of Pastors, had more conformity with the holy Scriptures, and with Reason, than Episcopacy; that he condemned Bishops for imposing Ceremonies which have no foundation in the holy Scriptures; that he said that Schism was on their side who imposed them, and not on the others who refused obedience and submission to them: In a word, that when the first Reformers retained some of the Ceremonies of the Church of Rome, their only design was to make of it a bait to draw and 'allure the Papists to the Protestant Religion, and not a hook to these to press them to their usage, under penalty of deprivation ab officio& beneficio.  
But since the Church has heaped upon him plurality of great benefice, he would fain have us believe that the holy Ghost has inspired into him other thoughts concerning the English Hierarchy: In the Epistle Dedicatory to the King, before his apology for the Archbishop Land, he sets it at an extraordinary high rate: and in a Treatise, whole Title is, An Answer to several late Treatises, in page. 180 and 181, he calls those schismatics that deny submission to the Government of the Church of England, and he tells us in plain terms assuredly, that the Reasons of this denial do not signify a Button. Those who separate from the Church of England make this their fundamental Principle, as to Worship,( wherein the difference lies) That nothing is lawful in the worship of God, but what he hath expressly commanded: We say all things are lawful which are not forbidden, and upon this single point stands the whole controversy of Separation, as to the constitution of our Church. We challenge those that separate from us to produce one person for 1500 years together that held Forms to be unlawful, or the Ceremonies which are used in our Church. We defend the Government of the Church by Bishops to be the most ancient and Apostolical Government, and that no persons can have sufficient reason to cast that off which hath been so Universally received in all Ages since the Apostles times; if there have been Disputes amongst us about the nature of the difference between the two Orders, and the necessity of it in order to the being of a Church, such there have been in the Church of Rome too. Here then lies a very considerable difference, we appeal and are ready to stand to the judgement of the Primitive Church for interpreting the Letter of Scripture in any difference between us and the Church of Rome, but those who separate from our Church will allow nothing to be lawful, but what hath an express command in Scripture.  
But it was not in this manner that the Learned Doctor reasoned, when neither the greatness, nor the dazzling Lustre of his Fortune did not blind him: This that he says here is a pure Fricacy and Hotch-pot; for if it had any force, one might add to Baptism, oil, Cream, Spittle, and Salt, and with as much reason preach the Gospel with a Cask upon ones Head, and a Sword and Buckler in ones Hand to be the signs of our Spiritual Warfare, as to across an Infant at Baptism, to be a memorial of the across of Jesus Christ; and to strengthen all these Fopperies and Grimaces upon the Argument of this Doctor, it is because they are no where forbidden in the Holy Scriptures; for at this rate, and by this means, might very well be introduced half of the Fooleries( not to say Idolatries) of Rome.  
But to make it evident that this reasoning and Argument of Dr. Stillingfleet is a Paralogism of the greatest Absurdity, to wit, that all that is not forbidden in the Scriptures, may, and ought to be practised in the Church, when it is expressly commanded by the Secular Powers; to make it evident, I say, that this Argument is a pure Paralogism, and a disorder or distraction of reason, we need only to red the one and thirtieth Verse of the seventh Chapter of Jeremiah, where God complains of his people, for having built the high places of Tophet, and made things which he had not commanded them, and which never so much as entered into his thoughts to command, hereby giving us to understand, that all manner of Worship, and every Ceremonious practise was unlawful, and an Abomination in the sight of God, not only when it is expressly forbidden, but even when it is not commanded. For the Children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the Lord, they have set their Abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it: and they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their Sons and their Daughters in the Fire, which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.  
Thus you see the Power and virtue of the eminent Authority of any Church whatsoever, whether Romish or English, which by its Gold and Riches metamorphize men into other men, making them of quiter different and opposite tempers from what they would be otherwise, and making them to speak as Pope Symmachus; Quis sanctum dubitet& bonum, quem apex tante Majestatis attollit? he that esteems, commends and approves not the good and the true, but the great and the rich, and who are highly preferred and exalted, in that manner that the people of Rome reverence the Saints when they are elevated on high, and set in their Niches; but do not value them at all when they lie on the ground, or have them broken in pieces.  
This truth will evidently appear, if you will comparatively balance the description which Mr. Baxter( pared of all benefice) makes of the Church of England, and its Episcopacy, with that which three eminent Doctors of that Church, well provided of benefice, make of it.  
I will begin with that which the Reverend and Learned Dr. Tillotson makes hereof, in his Sermon upon the words of S. Paul, 1 Cor. 3.15. but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by Fire, page. 34. I have been, according to my opportunity, not a negligent observer of the Genius and humour of the several Sects and Professions in Religion. And upon the whole matter, I do in my Conscience believe the Church of England to be the best constituted Church this day in the World; and that as to the main, the Doctrine, and Government, and Worship, of it, are excellently framed to make men soberly religious, securing men on the one hand from the wild freakes of enthusiasm, and on the other, from the gross follies of Superstition.  
The second Doctor, and Canon of the Chapter whereof Dr. Tillotson is the Dean, tells us in a discourse put at the beginning of his Translation of the Novelty of Popery, Were I now speaking to the French, I would endeavour to let them see, that we have more of the Primitive and apostolic Church-Government in England than any other Church in the rest of the World.  
The Third Panegyrist of the Church of England and its Government is Dr. Floyd, who is thought to be the Author of a Learned Treatise to fortify one against Popery. Our Discipline, says he, is absolutely after the Model of the Holy Scripture, and Primitive practise; and as to the Persons employed in the Preaching of the Word of God, and in the admistration of the Sacraments, they are lawfully called: they are ordained and consecrated according to the Rule and Canon of the Holy Scripture, and we are able to make the succession of our Bishops descend from the time of the Apostles even to our days, with full as much of certainty and evidence as can be done by any other Church at this day.  
But by the way, I think I ought to do the second of these Doctors this Justice, as to testify that he never varied or turned, as has Dr. Stillingsleet, and others, but both in his lower and better fortune he constantly had the same Inclination and Affection for the Church of England.  
Let us now proceed and oppose the description which is made of the Church of England, and its Episcopacy, by one of the sincerest persons in the World, and the most disengaged and free in his Judgments. I say let us oppose the description which Mr. Baxter makes of the Episcopacy of the Church of England, and of its Government, to that which these three Doctors have made hereof.  
The Episcopacy of the Church of England is absolutely contrary to the Holy Scripture, and the practise of the Primitive Church; it is not compatible with the Peace of the Church, nor with the Civil State. He adds, That it is the cause of all the Sects, all the Heresies, and of all the Schisms and Divisions which have rent and torn and infected England for above this hundred years: That it banishes all likelihood of Reformation in Religion and good manners: That it shirts the Door against the entrance of the Doctrine and Discipline of Jesus Christ: That it lets loose the Reins to all Debaucherys, Intemperance, Luxury and Idleness: That it makes the Pastors lazy in the discharge of their Ministry: That it foments Ignorance, Hatred of Piety; plurality of benefice; and residence by Law: That it is a Government which divests the Pastors of Parishes of the Authority to exerercise the Discipline of Jesus Christ: to invest the secular persons with it; that breaks the Union of the Churches of England with those beyond Sea: To conclude, That it is a Government which gratifies the Enemy of our Salvation, and persons of a sensual and depraved life. See his Book of the Government of the Church, where he enlarges upon this subject, especially in his Preface.  
A person out of England that might be judicious and sincere, and who never might have heard a word of the Church of England, but by the description which these four Divines make of it, would judge at first, that either Mr. Baxter must be the greatest liar, and vilest Calumniator in the World, or else that these other Doctors resemble Isocrates, who made a panegyric in praise of Busiris, and others who have highly commended Nero, and cried up the Quartan-Ague; and they are no less under the Tyranny of prejudice, when they so loudly magnify the Government of the Church of England, than is the Sorbonist Arnold, when he would fain show the perpetuity of Transubstantiation.  
And yet it is incredible how much these prejudices have created others in the mind and esteem of persons of worth and honesty in England, and elsewhere, who have not preached into the bottom of these matters, and what evil and havoc they have made in the Church; for as these three Doctors, who speak unanimously, are every where extremely valued and honoured by persons of greatest Learning and exactest Piety, those who red the description they make of the Government of the Church of England, must needs be confirmed in the Opinion of that Relation they have made of it; for it is with these three great Divines as with anselm, Bernard, Ives, and John of Salisbury in the Communion of Rome, who by the Reputation of their extraordinary Piety and Learning have confirmed the people in the Romish Religion, and have put an end to the doubtful Opinions which they had of the Pope's Empire, not to doubt any longer that he was the Vicar of Jesus Christ, in the Government as Head of the catholic Church, and so consequently have established more strongly the perpetuity of the Pope's Empire in the minds of Kings and people, than all the Diabolical Instruments of Gregory the Seventh, Innocent the Third and Fourth, and Boniface the Eighth, were ever able to contribute to it.  
And this is what may be rationally applied to those who in Germany, France, Holland, Switzerland, and at Geneva, have heard of the Description which Dr. Stillingfleet, and these other three Learned Doctors of their Church make, and of the high Reputation wherein they live, of being eminently learned and pious, and who on the other hand are informed that a great Party in England do separate from their Church, and who cannot forbear testifying, both by Words and Writings, that the Piety of this Party must be very delicate and scrupulous to refuse the example of Stillingfleet, Tillotson, and the rest, to rank themselves to their Church, and to submit to the practise of those Ceremonies which such great and eminent men approve of; for these are Reflections which the Tyranny of prejudice causes to be made to confirm the grossest errors, and to discredit the most holy persons, as are the Non-Conformists in England, who oppose them in these things.  
It is true, Dr. Tillotson is not very much satisfied with the conduct of his Brethren, and he has not utterly divested himself of that spirit of Peace, Meekness, and Puritanism, which he had formerly in him, and which at this day carries him out to condemn that Erysipelas of Contention, and those violent alarums of Mens Spirits, that have stirred up those of the Church of England, that are in highest places of Dignity and Preferment, and so Tyrannically domineer over others: for he hath lately published two Sermons of holy Invectives( if without offence I may use the term) against this Fewerish Spirit of Persecution, so contrary to the Genius of Christianity, and the economy of the Gospel. And therefore we expected from him, that he would have advanced in what he had already so happily begun, and that he would have exhorted his Brethren to lay hold of the then most opportune and convenient time which God presented them with, whilst the late Parliament sate, to practise the Duties of Repentance, for their compliance so far with the ways of Rome, and for their Rigour and Severity towards those, whose good Cause and many Prayers keep them in the Enjoyment of their Prebendaries and benefice, and divert the Judgments of God which are impendant over the heads of those who persecute them. In truth, I believe that the Canons of the Chapter, whereof Dr. Tillotson is the Dean, are not of the number of these Persecutors, but it is also true that they look upon these Persecutions unconcernedly, and without emotion, which they ought not to do; and that they consider these Overtures that are made, and which should be made for the reforming of their Order, and for bringing the Chapters back to a better use, as so many Hatchets or Axes lifted up to fell, or at least to shake the three of their subsistence. To close up all, I hope this good Doctor will prevail upon his colleagues, to convert their fierce and bitter Declamations against Rome, into Remonstrances made to the corrupted Party, that bear so great a sway at this time in the Church of England, and who are continually improving their Advances to the Church of Rome, and who show a more amiable Countenance and Aspect to that, than to these Faithful People of God in England, and which, I believe, may be most justly called, The true English Church, the most Faithful and Loyal People to God and their King, the true Citizens, not only of the Kingdom of Heaven, but also of that of England, for being always opposite to the too pernicious Designs of the corrupted Party of the Church of England, whereof the one was to introduce Popery in England, or at least a Religion not much differing from it, and the other, to persuade Kings to govern their People after an absolute Arbitrary manner, and to enervate the Authority of Parliaments, or rather quiter and clean to banish the use of them.  
Having already in my— page. shown you that the Puritans are incomparably more reasonable in their refusing to comply with and submit to the Ceremonies that are imposed, than those who so strenuously impose them. I thought it my duty to shut up this matter with adding this consideration which may absolutely justify the conduct of these persons. It is, That as those who reigned about thirty years ago would fain have imposed the Covenant to all the Members of the University of Oxford, under the penalty of being deprived of their Places, they published the Reasons of their Refusal, like to those which the Puritans have advanced above this 100 years, for their refusing to submit either to the Church of England, or to its Ceremonies; so that if you will parallel, or put into equality either of Justice or Injustice, the Imposition and the Refusal which each of them made, we must conclude, that if then right reason was on the side of the Prelatical Party in their refusing to take the Covenant, it is no less so at this day in the Refusal which the Puritans make about the Ceremonies that are imposed upon them.  
FINIS.   

A True REPORT OF A DISCOURSE BETWEEN MONSIEUR DE L'ANGLE, Canon of Canterbury, and Minister of the French Church in the Savoy, AND LEWIS DU MOULIN; The 10th of February, 1678/ 1679.  
LONDON, Printed in the year, 1679.   

A true REPORT, &c.  
HAving had about fifteen days since some discourse with one of my Friends, wherein I convinced him of this truth, That the Papists had never expected nor underdook the establishing of their Religion in England, by Massacres, especially by that damnable and Hellish one of the most sacred person in the Kingdom, if they had not been for a long time fully persuaded, that the Ecclesiastical party, who carry all things before them, were absolutely disposed to give them a most kind reception: As I was just shutting up this discourse, Monsieur de l'Angle, Canon of Canterbury, and Minister of the French Church in the Savoy, gave me an entrance into another, in which after he had declared to me the good intentions that my Elder Brother had to bestow upon me his liberalities; he thought he was obliged, as a Minister of Jesus Christ, and as my near Kinsman, to tell me in good earnest, that the reason of the Diminution of my Brothers bounty to me, proceed-from that Enmity which I testified with so much heat and bitterness against the Church of England; that I, more than all the men of the World amassed together, had an account to make to Almighty God, for that my Unchristian Spirit and rude treatment of it; and hereupon, having represented to me that the time of my dissolution could not be very far off, being turned of seventy four, he exhorted me, without any farther delay, to fall seriously to the work of making my peace with God, and getting my Conscience into a calm and serene temper, by practising the Duties of Repentance, and by labouring to live and die in the persuasion of the pardon, not only of all my sins past, but especially of those which I had committed against the Church of England, which I had so much disparaged and scandalised, both by my Writings and Speech.  
At the closing up of this Discourse, and of this vehement Exhortation which monsieur de l'Angle made me with a great Testimony of Affection and Kindness for the salvation of my Soul, which he said he saw in a very desperate condition, or at least in a very doubtful one, so long as I had not any remorse for that which he accused me of, I sate myself prepresently to make several Reflections upon all that he had said; and as I had nothing so much in view and prospect, as sincerely and truly to aclowledge my sins, that so I might correct myself, and repent of them by an humble and ingenuous Confession, I therefore made to myself several demands.  
Have I sinned in maintaining that of all the Reformed Churches from Popery, the English is the least conformable in its Government, and Practices, and in its Discipline, to the Primitive Church? I put then this Assertion into one balance, and another quiter contrary into another, which has been delivered by his excellent and learned colleague, whose words I have here inserted, in a Discourse which he has set at the beginning of his Translation of the Novelty of Popery.  
Were I now speaking to the French, I would endeavour to let them see that we have more of the Primitive and apostolic Church Government in England, than any other Church in the rest of the World.  
I believe that this great man hath delivered nothing in his words, which was not correspondent to his inward thoughts, and that he hath so much Affection for me, as to pass the same judgement on me as I have done on him, as to my Assertion so quiter different from his; as therefore his and mine are so directly opposite, surely there must needs be sin in one of us two, because we have each of us publicly declared his own; and that either he or I should study to find out this sin, and to repent of it before we die; and that upon this Article Monsieur de l'Angle addresses his Exhortation to Repentance to that person of us two who is the farthest off from the truth.  
From this Article, upon which I interrogated my Conscience, I passed to others, and asked myself,  
I. Have you discredited the Church of England, in maintaining that the Intentions of the first Reformers in England were good and sincere, when they made it their chief study to establish Purity of Doctrine, and a Worship distant from that of Rome, but not being able all at once to retrench all the Abuses of Rome, which were of lesser consequence, they reserved to their Successors the honour of passing from that early Essay of Reformation, to that which should be more removed from Popery?  
2. Is it to discredit the Church of England, to maintain that the Successors of those who were the first that put their hand to the work of Reformation, have done nothing at all as to that which their Predecessors had in their Eye, and that they are so far from taking away the Ceremonies of the Romish Church, which they thought necessary for some time to retain, that they have introduced others to them, and instead of drawing off more from Rome, they have advanced nearer to it; and likewise they have quitted the true Doctrine of the Church of England, established in the Reign of King Edward the Sixth, and of Queen Elizabeth, and have filled England, especially the two Universities, not only with the Doctrine of Pelagianism, and Socinianism, but also with that of Rome?  
3. But is it to discredit the Church of England, to affirm, that during this Corruption, which made considerable progress, and which came very near to Popery, God evermore has reserved two sorts of persons( who may be compared to those seven thousand men that had not bowed the Knee to Baal) who have not joined with those Corruptions, but have been constantly opposing them; the one was the Puritan Party, which has separated from the Church of England; and the other which has not separated from it, and which was a small number of good Bishops and Doctors, who have always had a kindness for the Puritan Party, as to their Discipline, but who more than all have held a strict Communion with them in point of Doctrine.  
4. Is it to discredit the Church of England, to condemn that spirit of Persecution which hath always reigned in the corrupt Party; who have always endeavoured to imitate Rome; and who not only have persecuted the Puritans more than the Papists, but who have likewise shewed as much favour and respect to these, as they could possibly testify to their very good Friends. In a word, is it to discredit the Church of England, to approve of the thoughts of that excellent Doctor, I mean the Dean of Canterbury, who hath powerfully made it out in his Sermon preached on the fifth of November last, that the Spirit of Persecution is contrary to the Genius and Temper of Christianity.  
5. Is it to discredit the Church of England, to condemn, with Monsieur claud, the practise of retaining as good and lawful the Ordination of Rome, which all Protestants do hold to be the Mother of Abominations, and the great Scarlet Whore; and moreover to reject, as null and invalid, the Call of all the Protestant Ministers who receive Imposition out of England, unless it be Episcopal.  
6. Is it to discredit the Church of England, to condemn that rigorous imposing of Ceremonies, that have not any Ground or Foundation in the sacred Scriptures, as the sign of the across in Baptism, the custom of pulling off the Hat when the name of JESUS is pronounced, and not when you pronounce the name of God, or of Christ; and kneeling at the holy Supper, which would never have been thought on, if Transubstantiation had not been brought into the world? Certainly my Father had no more a design to defame and scandalise the Church of England than myself, but rather to condemn this as well as the Roman, upon that Article of pulling off the Hat at the name of JESUS. When he said in his seventh Decade, Sermon 8. There are some, who, because S. Paul to the Philippians, Chap. 2. says, that at the name of JESUS every knee shall bow, take off their Hats every time when that word JESUS is pronounced, which devotion I should not very much blame, if they did so too at the name of Christ, and of God.  
7. But is it to discredit the Church of England, to maintain that the Imposing of these Ceremonies under penalty not only of privation from the use of the Sacraments, but also of suspension and deposition ab officio& beneficio, as they speak, was at as great a distance from the thoughts and Intentions of the first Reformers, as the Earth is from the Moon: But also to maintain, with John Fox, John Hales, Thomas Fullers, and the learned Dr. Stillingfleet in his Irenicum, that when these reforms retained some of the Ceremonies of the Church of Rome, they never had any design, nor thought, to make a hook of it to treat the Protestants, but to use it as a bait to 'allure and win over the Papists to the Protestant Religion.  
8. Is it to discredit the Church of England, to use the same Language with John Hales, Dr. Stillingfleet, and Monsieur claud, that those who separate from it out of a tender Conscience and scruple of undergoing the yoke of Ceremonies, are not the Sohismaticks, but that the Schism is on the side of the Prelates who lay that yoke upon them; if one party( says Monsieur claud, in a Letter he writes to Monsieur Michaeli) who find themselves to be the more prevailing, should have a mind to constrain the rest against their judgement in point of Conscience, even in things of but little Consequence, as are the points which make all the disorder in the English Church, the Schism lies on their side that impose?  
9. Is it to discredit the Church of England, to condemn the horrible abuse, that of fifteen thousand Ministers to provide for, and of ten thousand benefices or Cures to fill up, five or six-hundred persons possess the three fourths of their Revenues: and that Mr. durel should have six benefice for his part? I do not speak of Monsieur de l' Angle, for as yet he hath but three.  
10. To conclude, is it to discredit the Church of England, to affirm that those of Rome had never undertook to bring Popery into England by Massacres, and attempts upon the most Sacred Person of the kingdom; if the favourable aspect, which the Prelatical party( who have always prevailed, and kept the upper hand) have shown to the Papists, had not filled those with a belief, and hopes, that those who had gone one half of the way towards Rome, might easily be persuaded to go the rest? It is true, the corrupted party of the Church of England have not had Intelligence with the Papists in this Hellish and damnable Plot against the life of the King; but it is true likewise, that those had never dreamed of such a thing, if they had not been powerfully persuaded, that the introduction of Popery, which would have been the result and consequence of it, met with a great and strong party in England absolutely disposed to receive it.  
These are the principal Crimes that Monsieur de l'Angle would have me to aclowledge, and which he would have me to repent of before I die. We instanced a little about the erecting of Altars, and the reverend bows they made to them: Whereupon he fell into a rage, to justify that which I condemned as an Idolatry, or at least, either as a Pagan or a Romish Superstition, he said, that those reuerences were not made towards the Altar, but towards the East; and that at last, those were not things commanded, but left to the liberty of every man: To which I made bold to reply to him, that the sin was the greater, to practise a superstition which was not authorised by Laws, than when it is so; and that the sin is no less great to tolerate an evil practise, than to command it.  
As to that pitiful kind of escape, or evasion of his, that the Adoration is to the East, or towards the East, and not in consideration of the Altar, it were easy for me to show, that what he says has not any Foundation in Reason; and also, that he speaks contrary to truth.  
1. Because before the Introduction of Altars, for about fifty years, and of which I am a good Ocular Witness, there was not any Curvation of Body made towards the East.  
2. Because that this practise is Pagan, and hath been condemned by lo the First, as I have red in Gerard Vossius, lib. de Idololatria.  
But if any one ought to repent, before he dies, of an erroneous Opinion, sure it ought to be Monsieur de l'Angle, for maintaining that Prostrations in the Church are not made towards the Altar, but towards the East; for that is to give the lie to Archbishop Laud, the first Founder and Institutor of Altars in the Church reformed from Popery in England, and who the first made Idols of them; for he explains himself very particularly upon that Subject, in a Speech which he made in the year 1638. to the Peers assembled in the Star-Chamber, saying, that in coming in, and going out of the Church, and in continuing there, one ought to give more respect to the Altar, than to the Ministers Pulpit, because in this we say only, Hoc est verbum meum; but in the other we say, Hoc est corpus meum, which is, says he, incomparably more to be reverenced than the Word: And these are Impertinencies which his mitre, and Monsieur durel, make to pass for good sense, and good reason.  
I shall here take notice, being it lies in my way, that Monsieur de l'Angle treats me, as Clodius and Catilina treated those who were less guilty than themselves.  Clodius accusat Maechos, Catilina Cethegum. 
He would take the Mote out of mine Eye, whilst, alas! he has got a great Beam in his own, which he cannot endure that any should touch: he possesses two benefice with Cure of Souls, although this practise be held for sacrilege by the Canonists, and by the Lawyers, Monsieur le Maitre, and Monsieur Patru, and also by the Divines in England, who assure us, that those who Preach by a Proctor or Deputy in one of their Cures, and do not allow the Vicar the whole Revenue of the Cure, shall likewise go to Heaven by Deputation; that the sin is so much the more horrible and crying, if he who possesses two Cures, is elsewhere provided with a sat Prebendary.  
Bishop Morton says, Apol. part. 1. cap. 2. Qui per alium, munere suo praedicandi defungitur, habebit salutem Vicariam, said poenam personalem; ibit in gehennam per se, in Paradisum per altum; that is, he that performs the Office of Preaching by another, shall have his Salvation by another, but the punishment shall be personally to himself; he by himself shall go into Hell, and into Paradise by the other: And the learned Whitaker tells us, lib. de Rom. pontiff. cont. 4. c. 4. Qui Vicaria opera utuntur, non nisi Vicariam mercedem,& salutem expectare possunt: Those who make use of a Vicar to discharge their own duty to the Church, cannot expect any other than a Vicarious Reward and Salvation. Monsieur le Maitre calls the Pastors that have a double Cure, dumb Dogs; and says, that they resemble those ill Shepherds, of whom the Prophets speak, who leaving the Sheep to wander where or how they will, yet they feed and nourish themselves with their flesh, and cloath themselves with their wool; and that they break the Natural Bond both of labour and reward.  
He ought not then to take it amiss, if I make bold here to give him two Exhortations upon this subject and matter; the one is, to repent of this Crime before he goes out of the world; and to that end, let me remember him of a Jewish Proverb, viz. that it is good and necessary for a man to repent one day before he dies; now he, not knowing when his last day may be, surely ought to begin his repentance this day, for fear he may not ever have another; and that he would remove far away from his heart this thought, that repentance is no less a serious, necessary, and pressing work than death, which possibly he may not as yet expect this forty year: the other Exhortation is, to take the Counsel of S. John the Baptist, without changing or altering any thing of the discourse he made to his Auditors, but only the word Garment into that of bnfice; that is, that he who hath two of them, should give one to him who hath none. But they think to evade this Crime by this Recrimination.  
Some accuse me for having said, that I rather would be burnt, than be of the persuasion of the Church of England: others, that I would rather turn over to the Romish, than to the English Church, if I had not yet made choice of my Religion: and that it is in consideration of those dreadful words that Monsieur de l'Angle hath exhorted me to repentance, and not for having said all this, that I have been talking of concerning the Church of England, to show that I have not defamed it. I believe I never spake a word like this, since I am persuaded, with the Archbishop of Armagh, James Usher, that one may have Salvation in any Christian Church whatsoever, in retaining that which is good in it, provided it neither constrains one to the belief, nor to the practise of those things which God hath forbidden, and provided one may have the liberty to make an Assembly of three or four persons who are the true Worshippers of Jesus Christ. One may live in a Church without having Communion with it; nay, one may have an outward Communion with heretics, and the vicious of that Church( as were several of the Corinthians, whereof some denied the Resurrection) without participating with them in their Impieties: One may, says Beza, Epist. ad Tilium, receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper with the impious and ungodly, without sinning and polluting ones self; but surely this one may do, take common repasts with them.  
After all, those words which are imputed to me, ought not to offend the ears of those who are true Christians, who would rather resolve to endure the Fire, or any other kind of death, than to subscribe to Sentiments contrary to theirs in matters of Religion. And such a person as myself, who have promised and sworn in the Covenant I have taken, and which I do not repent of, to stick firmly to the Church and Religion, which is the farthest off from Rome, could not with a good Conscience subscribe that I approve of the English Hierarchy, as having the most Conformity with the Primitive and apostolic Church. If I were called to the holy Charge of the Ministry, I would endure, if I could not take them away, this Hierarchy, and even Images in Churches, as an affliction; but I would rather suffer myself to be burnt, than approve of the use and worship of them.  
As I believe that the Religion of Rome is a pure blindness, and ignorance of understanding, and that of the Church of England an one-eyed Reformation; but the Religion of the Puritans, that of the clear-sighted, which neither wants eyes, nor illumination; I had rather be one-eyed in the Communion of the Church of England, than be blind in that of Rome; but otherwise I had rather have two good eyes in the Communion either of the Puritans, or of that of our Churches in France, than have but one Eye in that of the Church of England. Yet I believe, that the spirit of Persecution, which stirs up the Bishops of England against those who are Protestants with themselves, makes them incomparably more Criminal than it does the Papists against the Reformed, whom they look upon as heretics and Apostates, and therefore upon that consideration they have some reason to treat them as they do.  
One ought not then to wonder, if not having either Revenue, or Worldly Dignity, or a fat kitchen, or a Cure, or a Prebendary, or any support or favour from an eminent Authority, as is that of the Church of England, which do greaten the Idea of things and persons, and which sets a value on those that have none, in case you divest them of those outward things which are fortunae missilia: One ought not to wonder, I say, if I am exposed, without being able to make any resistance, to the Tyranny of prejudices, false Opinions, Customs, and Interests, which are now reigning. For I am very sure, that if on the one side those Gentlemen were divested of all that is dazzling and splendid in their fortune, and on the other side if you look upon me with other regards than those of a Physician, and a person destitute of all worldly Pomp and Grandeur, my cause would infinitely carry it beyond theirs; for this reason, that I have good Sense and Truth on my side, and those Gentlemen have not.  
If, in a word, as Epictetus says, we are both divested of all that dazzles or blinds men by Interest or Prejudice, I am very sure they will find nothing to contradict, nor to reprehend in all I have writ for above this forty years upon the subject of Ecclesiastical Power and Excommunication, nor of that which concerns the Church of England; and that if the Pope could say as much of his Decrees, he would have some reason to make them pass either for infallible, or at least for incontestable.  
But there has happened since this Conversation in the precedent Discourse which I had with Monsieur de l'Angle, where not only I have purged myself from those Crimes whereof he accuses me, and for which he exhorted me to Repentance before I dyed; but also I make him an Exhortation much-what the same with that he made to me; for having delivered several things contrary to both Reason and Truth: I say there has happened another subject which deserves incomparably more that he should be exhorted to Repentance before he dies, than that is which he hath taken, as to the remonstrance he made me.  
And as I had no small Affliction and Trouble upon me, from the resentment I had of his rugged and harsh usage of me, I went presently to wait upon one of the most eminent Lords of the Kingdom, and who is no less a maecenas to Monsieur de l'Angle than to me, into whose Bosom I poured out the grief of my heart, for the Reproaches I had received from so near a Kinsman as Monsieur de l'Angle is to me; and the same day that I made my Complaints to him, Monsieur de l'Angle came to see him, and stiffly affirmed that my whole Complaint was false; and that he had not exhorted me to Repentance for having done any thing to the scandal and defamation of the Church of England, by writing against it; but for having attacked the Protestants in general; which that Lord at first interpnted to be upon my old subject of Excommunication and the Ecclesiastical Power: But I will take my Oath upon the Holy Bible, that the subject of our Conversation was that of the Church of England, and that we spake not a word about Excommunication; which was proved by the particular subject on which we fell, concerning the setting up of Altars, and the Prostrations made to them, which he positively asserted were not made towards the Altar, but towards the East, as on the other hand I plainly discovered to him, that those reuerences had not the East for their Object, but the Altar, and that there was Idolatry in those practices: But to entertain him with these matters, was to speak to him in an Arabian language which he understood not. And however, if it were true, as he affirms, that he made his remonstrances to me upon the Subject of the Ecclesiastical Power and Excommunication, it was as great a piece of rashness and temerity in him, to make me them upon those subject matters he alleges, as it was in Megabyses, the egyptian Priest, to speak of Painting in the presence of Alexander and Apelles: For it seems, he does not know that my sentiments adjust with those of Dr. Sillingfleet, and which are approved of by all illuminated, and unprejudiced persons that are not of the Sacred Function, and also of a great many of those who are Ministers in France, and elsewhere, and who publicly profess that they place the discipline of our Churches upon its true and Natural Foundations; moreover that they are conformable to those of Richard Hooker, the Bishop Bilson, and Bishop Andrews, and even of Davenant, and the first Reformers in England, who held for a maxim, that the sovereign Magistrate is as much governor in chief of the Church, as of the republic; and that the Sentences of Deposition, and Excommunication, are full-out as much Civil Censures, as the Punishments inflicted upon those that transgress the Commandments of the Decalogue.  
Therefore Monsieur de l'Angle ought seriously to repent of that temerity, and of two other sins which he was guilty of in our dispute: whereof the one is, in being ashamed before men to show himself the defender of a Cause which he believes to be the Cause of God. The other is, in having affirmed to that Noble Lord, contrary to truth, and the Testimony of his Conscience, that the Subject of our Conversation was not my heat against the Church of England, but against the Ecclesiastical Power and Excommunication, in that manner as they are now in use amongst our Churches. God be praised that I see my Innocence published, and that those who are the most contrary and opposite to me, dare condemn me fiercely in private; but dare not reprehend me before men, nor openly tell me, no not in particular, what are the Crimes that deserve to be repented of by me before I die.  
There could not possibly any thing happen, that might be more advantageous to my cause, and carriage, and more to the disadvantage of Monsieur de l'Angle, than the shane he was in to declare before persons of the highest quality, and of known uprightness and integrity, what were the reasons that moved him to exhort me to Repentance; when at the same time I make no difficulty to declare those which urge me to exhort him to it, without having any subterfuges, or tricks of Evasion. Why is he more ashamed than my Elder-Brother, to maintain to that Lord what my Brother hath writ to him of me? I consider my poor Brother as a man raised by the evil Spirit, for the destruction of the Church: It would be a double fault in me to assist him to do evil; I allege these words, not out of any ill will, to complain of my Brother, but to advance and extol his kindnesses to me, which are so much the greater, and more obliging, in that he Acts quiter contrary to what he threatens me with.  
I allege them to show, that when my Brother says, I am raised by the evil Spirit, for the destruction of the Church, he does not mean that which tends to the destruction of the Ecclesiastical power, and Excommunication, since on the contrary that is a good Spirit, and such wherewith holy Men, as wickliff, Zuinglius, Musculus, and Bulinger, were animated, as Calvin acknowledges, calling those holy men who banished the use of them, Pios& doctos viros: But he meant that that Spirit which moved me to defame the Church of England, and to impute to it such things as he believed were not true, was an evil Spirit. And it is upon the account of these strong suspicions that I defamed the Church of England, that my Brother and Monsieur de l'Angle had reason to condemn me for, and to exhort me to repentance before I die; and not upon that of having said that the Ecclesiastical power, is an illusion, and that Excommunication is but a fabulous and Chimerical Thunder-clap.  
So that this action of exhorting a person to repentance, for having defamed the Church of England, being good and holy, he ought not to blushy at it, nor to deny that he had given it me: but that which most grates upon him, and touches him to the quick, is not the sense that he has done ill in exhorting a person to repent of those crimes, but in not being able to verify them. For I do publicly maintain, that it is not to defame the Church of England, to affirm that for above this threescore years, the corrupt party, which have prevailed, and always kept the upper hand in the Church, which would fain pass for the Church of England, have not only made continual advances towards Rome, as to its Ceremonies, Worship and Discipline, but especially also as to its Doctrine.  
This is that which will appear, as to this last Article, by a Cloud of Witnesses fetched from the English Doctors, who have presided in Episcopal Sees, in the Universities, and in the Chapters of Deans and Canons. It will appear that in this list, where they run towards Rome, they have passed the Barriers in which it is confined, and have got into the Tents of Pelagius and Socinus; that they have made a mere mockery and illusion of the holy Trinity; that they have turned into raillery the most sacred Mysteries of the Christian Religion, and do laugh at the imputative righteousness of Jesus Christ; at Justification by Faith; and have preached that the Heathens may do good works, and that they are as meritorious and wellpleasing to God without the Grace of Jesus Christ, and as much a means to obtain eternal life, as the alms and prayers of a devout Cornelius.  
And as I have already begun to cure my Brother of those violent prejudices which he had against me, as if I were actuated and influenced by an evil Spirit, this publication, I hope, will absolutely do the work, and establish him in that opinion, that the Spirit which animates me, is a good Spirit. It will awaken his zeal, and carry him to publish his meditations against his false Brethren, and to join himself with those good Puritans, who labour at this day as much to discover the Maladies of the Church, as to heal and cure those that are known. He who so happily treads in the steps of his Father, as to what respects the purity of his Doctrine, the exactness of his life, and who possesses, like him, a peace and tranquillity of soul so great, that he is the only person capable to writ such a thing from his own experience, will put an end for a time to his war with Rome, to exhort his Brethren of the Church of England, to go in this present posture of the Church, not only three, but four parts of the way to a reconciliation with them who are called Puritans, Prasbyterians, independents and Fanaticks: For those who are in the right, would act imprudently, if they should lend an ear to any accommodation, provided it be to their real prejudice. Also they say very rationally to those who speak to them of it, that the remedy ought to be applied to that part from whence the evil comes, and it is to that which hath made the disorder, that you ought to fit it. Now Schism, or rapture in the Church, is not the sin of the Non-Conformists, but of those who impose on them the use and practise of Ceremonies, in Divine Worship, which are forbidden in the holy Scripture, or at least are not commanded there. 'tis the sin of these unreasonable and unpityed men, who know very well in their Conscience, that the first Reformation was imperfect; that their Ceremonies are things indifferent, and not necessary: Yet were never willing to touch over this Reformation, nor to harken to the cries and Remonstrances of above three fourth parts of the people of England, who have verily believed that these Ceremonies were not things indifferent, but stones of stumbling, and a cause of sin; that the first Reformamation had need to be revised, and that these relics of Rome cannot be retained without offence to God; without being in danger of returning to them again; without giving Rome great hopes of England's Reconciliation with her; without overturning one of the ends for which Jesus Christ came into the World, to wit, to procure Peace; and without giving up the Cause to the Devil, who hath not found any way more agreeing and suitable to his design of corrupting the Church by Heresies, Schisms, and Divisions, than this of introducing Ceremonies. It was a Ceremony, as the Purisication was, that made a Division between the Disciples of Moses and those of S. John the Baptist; and it was the use of Ceremonies that caused the dissension among the Apostles, as we red in the fifteenth of the Acts. 'twas a Ceremony that first of all separated the Western from the Eastern Churches.  
The Conformists of England have been so far from retrenching these Practices and Ceremonies of Rome, which the first Reformers had retained, that they have called in others more gross than some of those they had banished; they have set up again the Altars which they had thrown down; re-established the reading of Bell and the Dragon, and of Toby and his Dog in the Church, which was taken away. This is what they did in the last Conference which was had at the Savoy in the Strand, near to Somerset-house; where, after a long Contest and a warm Dispute between the Non-Conformists and the Conformists, and these last having got the better, one of them cried aloud, with a great transport of joy, at his going out, Well, now the Cause of Bell and the Dragon has carried it. This is what I learnt from the Book of that great man, Mr. Andrew Marvel, against Dr. Parker.  
I hope my Brother will take to heart all these Considerations, and will apply the Remedy to the distempered part, and not to that which is sound and well; not to those who are farthest off from Rome, but to those who get as near it as they can; not to those who persist in their engagement to the Doctrine and Lives of the Apostles, but to those who differ from them, who corrupt their Doctrine, and whose life hath nothing of that Apostolical mildness and sweetness of temper, but of the Cruelty and Barbarousness of the Papists.  
In a word, I hope from my Brother, that being reconciled to the people of God, and to me, he will make my peace with Monsicur de l'Angle; which he may easily do; for oftentimes some seem to be in great Wrath and Indignation, who would fain notwithstanding be made Friends again, when they find they are angry without cause, and to no purpose. I attribute that bitterness of his towards me, not to his natural temper, which is meek and humble, and full of benignity, but to the great distance which he imagines to be between his Fortune and mine, and to that high place of preferment wherein he now is. So that I may say of him, what the Fable reports of the Lamb and the Wolf; that the Lamb, seeing, from the top of the House where he was, the Wolf passing by, gave him very railing and injurious Language; but the Wolf answered him mildly, I do not concern myself much at thy sharp and scornful words, for I am sure thy nature is quiter contrary to it, but I attribute them to the highness of the place whereto thou art exalted, which makes thee to forget thy usual and ordinary sweetness of temper.