A MODEST PLEA FOR THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.  
By Richard Hollingworth, A. M. and Vicar of West-Ham near London.  
Confusion in Religion will as certainly follow every man's turning Priest or Preacher, as it will in the State where every one affects to rule as King.  King Charles the First his Life and Meditations, Octavo. page 275. 
LONDON, Printed for R. Royston, Bookseller to his most Sacred Majesty, at the Angel in Amen-corner. 1676.   

TO The Right Reverend Father in God HENRY Lord Bishop of LONDON.  
My Lord,  
IT is observed that the Enemies of our Church notwithstanding in the memory of many now alive they acted such things as were impious and diabolical, and but some few years ago were beholden to an act of Pardon to secure to them their Lives and Estates, yet are so fond of themselves and their Opinions still, that they lift up their heads with their former confidence, and print and preach themselves the only People of God in opposition to that great Body of men who do orderly comply with the Kingdoms Laws; And withal are at this time using all artifices whatsoever to pull us up both root and branch once again. (So very thankful are they for all his Majesty's gracious condescensions to them.)  
But seeing they are so resolved, and nothing can oblige them, I think every true Son of the Church ought to use the Talon God hath given him, to obviate their designs, and to discover those wily methods by which they pursue the Church's ruin; which I am sure is a more justifiable undertaking than theirs, let their pretences be never so specious and taking amongst the more rash and inconsiderate part of Mankind.  
And from this Principle of Love and Honour to the Church's peace and safety, does this little Book make bold to appear abroad; and particularly to fly into your Lordship's Arms, as the most proper Sanctuary for protection and defence from all those rude assaults which our Adversaries are too well acquainted with the practice of; which if your Lordship will be pleased to condescend to, it shall everlastingly be acknowledged as one of the greatest Honours, done to  
Your Lordship's Faithful and Obedient Servant Richard Hollingworth.   

Imprimatur Tho. Tomkyns.  
Ex Ed. Lambethan. Jan. 15. 1674.   

THE PREFACE TO THE READER.  
Reader,  
I Am not ignorant by what slights and methods such honest and well designed Books as this are answered; it is but telling the credulous vulgar that the man that writ it, is unacquainted with the power of Godliness, that the seed of Cain will be envying the seed of Seth, and the Children of the bondwoman insulting over those of the free, and the work is done, and the book laid aside, as not good enough for waste paper. That I may therefore prevent this, give me leave to aver thus much in mine own behalf, that the Christian Religion is a thing so admirably wise in its contrivance, so great an Instance of Divine Power in its production, and so amply demonstrative of a never to be paralleled love and goodness; it is so every way fitted to the needs and necessities, nay to the delight and entertainment of the minds of men, and accommodates, itself to them so fully in every condition: that should a thought at any time crowd and thrust itself into my soul, that invites me to any neglect or contempt of it, I must either forsake my Principles, or else I must throw it out with all becoming wrath and indignation; And I pray God I may no longer make any abode in this house of clay, than I may one way or other be instrumental to recommend it to the choice and liking of all men, within my knowledge and acquaintance. And though I dare not confidently boast of myself, yet so fully am I satisfied of the truth and Divinity of its Author, of the excellency of its Doctrines and Principles, of the advantages that naturally (as well as those by promise) flow from a severe and honest, from an impartial and universal practice of its Rules and Methods; that I think I could for its Honour, and its further obtaining in the World, part with all that is near and dear to me. And therefore should I think, that any thing in this small Treatise did tend in the least to lessen its esteem, and to expose so excellent a Systeme, to the scorn and laughter, or to the contempt and disdain of any person, I would by my own hands revenge myself upon it, for being guilty of so bainous a piece of wickedness, and out of a just resentment of its unworthiness to appear in the world, either sacrifice it to the flames, or bury it among the filth and ordure of an unsavoury dunghill. No, so lovely a thing is this excellent Religion in my eyes (and I assure you this loveliness does not appear to me from bare sensible impressions or warm touches upon my fancy, but from rational convictions of mind and understanding) that I cannot forbear admiring and honouring any person, upon whose soul I see any strokes or lines of Religion drawn, and who by his carriage and behaviour evidences himself devoted to its Interest and Service. Yea though these persons differ from me in Judgement, or any particular opinion, yet if the difference issues merely from the weakness of their minds or the necessary impositions of their first education, and there appears no mixture of the stubbornness and obstinacy of a resolved will, (which gives the formality to sin) I do declare that I can cohabit with them as Brethren, treat them as Intimates and Familiars, and serve them with the affection of a real and uninterested Friend. And those men whom God hath received (and no otherways can I judge of such, whom I find in a Zealous pursuit of essential holiness and goodness, and more cool and careless in promoting remote opinions and needless theories and speculations) I dare not judge, but hope to meet them at the last day, and with them to enter into a possession of those Glories, which Christ is gone to prepare for all his Faithful Followers.  
And therefore if any person inquire, how it comes to pass that I have exposed a Book to public view, wherein so many, whom it may be they greatly esteem for holiness and strict walking, are so much concerned, and so severely reprehended? I reply; 'Tis none of their holiness I reprove, God forbidden, but those ungodly practices, and unseasonable divisions, which many of them themselves once eagerly complained and petitioned against, and which I am confident will in the end be bitter to them.  
And further I do aver, that it is no particular man I exercise my zeal in the following discourse against, but form bodies, and united Factions of men, who in companies and numbers flock together, and publicly break those Laws, the preservation of the honour of which is so necessary to us in all our capacities and circumstances whatsoever. And when the same Authority that hath bound and reined them in, shall think good by Laws to let them lose, I have done, and shall submit to the Will of my Superiors: but till then I think the ill influence that this general disobedience hath upon the minds of the more ignorant sort of persons in other particulars, besides that of rending the Church of England in pieces, is enough to justify and warrant my zeal and courage in such an undertaking.  
And that I may vindicate myself from future aspersions, and satisfy the unprejudiced part of the World, that it was not bitterness of spirit, but a true regard for the honour and reputation of the Protestant Religion, that put me upon such meditations, I will give you the particular Motives prompting me thereunto; which when done, I hope I shall find a candid acceptance, and favourable opinion in all worthy and generous, in all dispassionate and disinterested breasts.  
First then, I found the principles from which Nonconformity to the Church does flow, and by which they seek to countenance the present Separation, not only to be false in themselves, but withal bad in their impressions and influences; and that after by them people are unsettled, and forced to a breach with the Church of England, nothing can be proposed to them, that proves a firm ground to set their feet upon: But many, I was going to say most of them, run from one opinion to another, and that with the very same Arguments and Reasons upon the score of which they parted from us. And he that will not come to the public Church because the Preacher wears a Surplice, etc. which he can find no express command for from Scripture, why, within a short space he leaves the Assemblies of the Presbyterians, because they own several things as to Church Government, which do no ways correspond with the practice of the Apostles, whose Churches they say were not subordinate to, but independent upon one another. And when it may be he hath linked himself with those of the Congregational way, as they are pleased to phrase it, why the same argument assaults him afresh, and drives him into the tents of Munster, and the man turns Anabaptist, because he finds no explicit command for the administering that Sacrament to infants in all the new Testament. And alack! let him but with this principle read his Bible often, and put such interpretations upon the several texts thereof, as his weak judgement, and overheated Fancy suggests to him, and it is ten to one but his head turns round every Moun, and that the man disturbs not only himself, but all the Neighbourhood with his constant dissatisfactions. Especially if he set out, as usually all these men do, with that other hopeful Principle, that the Magistrate hath nothing to do in matters of Divine Worship, and that his power is terminated within the compass of civil things; Oh this makes them all Lords and Princes, and puts a fullness of power into their hands to shape and fashion what Religion or model of Worship to themselves they please. And by virtue of these too pernicious Principles we find some have run into all the absurdities and blasphemies of the Quakers; and others have so tired themselves with continual seeking, and importunate inquiries after the best way, that at last from a downright weariness, they have sat down and in great discontent have thrown off all regard to Religion, and turned profane scoffers at it, as a thing designed on purpose to puzzle men's brains and disturb the World. And when I say this, I do not speak without sufficient evidence, there are too many proofs of it in this Kingdom, and he must be too little conversant either with men or Books that denies it.  
And therefore upon this account I do hearty wish the Subjects of this Realm reduced to the principles of obedience to our excellent Church, because I am persuaded, that the time they consume in needless inquiries, would be spent in fervent devotions, in dutiful attendance upon all those Instruments and Methods of Instruction, whereby they might learn to govern their lives in those several conditions they are in. And certainly had not these foolish principles been started, and thereby the minds of easy, and more illiterate persons been amused, and pestered with idle scruples, certainly, I say, Religion had met with a more universal acceptance, and cheerful practice than now it does; and we might suppose among the Common people, what time they were at liberty from their necessary callings, would have been spent in heavenly meditations, in Zealous prayer, or in instructing their Children and Servants in the Fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Religion, or in reading such good books as were designed, not to feed the Fancy, but to convince the Judgement, and proportionably to raise the Affections to God and Christ, to his holy Laws and excellent directions.  
And though I know some men will except against all this I say, and offer in apposition to it, that many of the Members of their Sepurated Churches, have continued so from their first admission, without starting, and that therefore this is no argument against their principles, why, to this I answer, that men's continuance amongst them, flows not from their Principles themselves which certainly betray men to all imaginable sickleness and uncertainty, but from some other considerations, as either from an extreme love and esteem for the Person, who is their supposed Pastor, or else from prudential considerations of those reproaches, that such a slitting humour does expose them to, or some other things of a worse nature, which though I could, yet I list not now to name.  
And therefore I do entreat all those into whose hands this small Treatise shall come, to consider well with themselves the danger of admitting such Principles into their belief; for I am confident, did most of those well meaning People, who by virtue of these very Doctrines are drawn over to them, understand how destructive they are to all Churches whatsoever, how injurious to the Rights of Princes, rebbing them of more than half their power, and what additions they make by them to God's Laws, imposing such things upon the belief and practice of others, (yea and under the notion of the unalterable Government of the Lord Christ,) as were not thought of for above fifteen hundred years together among the Churches of God in any part of the Wold; further, did they consider how these Principles, (that will be content with nothing, but an absolute determined way of Worship from Scripture,) take away all power of tolerating or bearing with any man of a contrary Mind, because after a fullness of persuasion, that such a thing is the only way of Christ, a man cannot think well of, nor consequently suffer, if he have a power in his hands, any man to enjoy any opinion contrary thereunto, because it is to give him leave to damn himself when it is in the others power very much to prevent it; I say, were these with many other considerations, well understood by the Common people, they would not, I am persuaded, run in such numbers from our Churches, nor be so easily beguiled into a belief of things, so every ways wanting a Foundation in Holy Writ, nor would they make such vile and unworthy reflections upon a Church whose Foundation is laid, and superstructure built by the Laws of Reason and rightly understood Religion; in a word, which imposes nothing upon our practice that is forbidden in Holy Scripture. And I hope there is so much weight in this one Reason I have given for my zeal against the present Separation, as may apologise for me and satisfy any modest man, that it is not from any Principle of despite to God, his Religion or his people that I have ventured upon such a work as this: But I have yet more to say.  
Further then, I took notice that Nonconformity had a very evil aspect upon Governors, and Government; I found no men so ready to embrace any stories, whereby their superiors were scornfully reflected upon, or vilely represented, as these man were, nor any men more hasty in spreading these tales further abroad: and wondering with myself that men pretending to so extreme a strictness, and pleading that strictness as a sign of their being the best of Saints, should fail in so known and obvious a duty as obedience to Authority is, I looked back into Ages past, and God knows found the same temper and spirit among those who were the authors and beginners of this desolating Separation. I found one Goodman an Exile in Queen mary's days, and one of the Antesignani of the Nonconformists, vindicating Wyat's rebellion, asserting in Print that his cause was God's, and that none but Traitors could accuse him of Treason; and after this I find Queen Elizabeth maligned by White, Rowland and Hawkins, three of the Brotherhood, and by no means must she be thought any other ways than an evil Princess, spoiling God's people, and extolling vanity, and this averred before Grindall then Bishop of London. And if I should quote what hath dropped from these men's pens since, to the slandering of God's Anointed, this Preface would swell into too great a bulk.  
Now I must confess this thing very much troubled me, and stirred my passions, to see that in which our happiness is so apparently wrapped up, and by virtue of which we safely possess the fruits of our own labours, made the scorn of boys and raw servants, and the wise and prudently enacted Laws, brought to the Bar many times, by a company of silly women, who are led captive, and laden with many lusts, and according to their deep and profound judgement voted obligatory, or else nulled and voided. And in good earnest this appears to me the ready way to the Nations ruin as it naturally prepares men to serve their turn upon the established Government, when ever opportunity is put into their hands. And no man need blush in asserting this, when he considers, who they were, that in the beginning of the late unnatural War, readily took the Alarm, and clothed themselves with courage and armour too, in order to sight the Lord's battle against the Mighty, but such persons as had been brought up under, and disciplined by such Teachers as were known notoriously inclinable to the Principles of Separation.  
And he that considens with what pleasure some men do reflect upon the Privileges and enjoyments the late War gave them, before his Majesty's return, and how ready they are to suggest to young and unimpressed minds, that those were days, wherein men might be as good as they would, and wherein scandalous Ministers were turned out, with many other things of the like nature, he must needs infer from thence that many of these people are so far from repenting of what was then done, that they could willingly wade through the same paths of blood, to be reinstated in their former privileges again.  
Now truly I must needs say that I cannot think the Kingdom safe so long as such things are propagated; and propagated they will be so long as men believe their Prince an enemy to the pure Doctrines and Ordinances of Jesus Christ, and themselves persecuted for compliance with Christ's Laws in opposition to the superstitious Impositions of their Governors. For considering the weakness of men, and the slender improvement the education of most give them, how can we imagine Magistrates should have their due honour and esteem from such persons, who are made to believe, that they symbolise with Antichrist, and are Friends to the cause and Interest of the Beast? No alack! such crafty insinuations as these waste all the Principles of Loyalty in easy and credulous men's breasts, they embitter and poison their Spirits so that they spit nothing but fire in the face of all well regulated Constitutions, and there is nothing but the fear of imprisonment, or confiscation of Goods, or the loss of life that keeps these men thus set on fire, from offering violence to the Thrones of Princes. It was this that made Henry the Third and the Fourth of France fall under the bloody hands of two Assassinates; and though our modern Enthusiasts and the Papists widely differ in many things, yet in a mistaken furious zeal, and resolute erterprises for the mistaken cause of God, and his Church, they have been both very much to blame, and incurred such a censure as, thanks be to God, the regular Sons of the Church of England can wash their hands from.  
Now this being very plain and notorious, I thought I could not do a better work, one whereby I might better serve my Prince and Country, than by endeavouring to reconcile men to a Church, wherein they learn the duties of humility and meekness, of modesty and candour of spirit, of submission and obedience, of jealousy and suspicion of their own private opinions, when they stand in competition with the public Judgement and Wisdom of the Nation. For these are virtues hugely serviceable to the interest of Government, and preserve such a peace amongst men, as gives great encouragement to industry and labour. These are Virtues that render Religion amiable and lovely, and no doubt the more Professors are possessed of them, the more do they engage standers by not only to an admiration of, but an hearty compliance with that Religion, that cancels no worthy Law, that is made in pursuit of the ends of Government, but on the other side lays obligations upon every man to keep his place, denouncing severely against those, who either curse their Princes in their hearts, or speak evil of Dignities with their tongues. And let me speak freely, That I am very much mistaken, if a return to so good a spirit as this, is going to Egypt again, is siding with the Beast against God and his Christ, is renouncing the Kingship of Christ; which words by whom made use of, and to what purposes we can easily tell.  
If this be a forsaking of Christ and giving up his cause, and going into Babylon, I pray God I may continue in this Babylon all the days of my life: and then, notwithstanding all those threats denounced against us, for conforming to the superstitions of the Church, I do not doubt but we shall find as fair and ready acceptance at the last day, as any of these hotspurs can promise to themselves.  
But this is not all that I have to plead for myself, and this present undertaking. I had continued and lived in that famous City of London for many years, and received very considerable marks of kindness from many of the inhabitants thereof, and therefore thought myself bound in gratitude to do any thing that might contribute towards its happiness and welfare. And upon a just survey of the influence of Fanatical Principles upon the minds of many men, I could not wind myself out of a persuasion, but that these practices would sooner or later be the occasions of much mischief to that ancient Metropolis.  
It was the custom of the free Denizens of that place formerly to attend those public Ordinances which were administered in their own Parish Churches, by their own legally settled Ministers, and gravely, to the admiration of all strangers, who either out of curiosity or business visited that place, to walk to those places in the head of their Families, and the subordinate Members thereof in their several ranks and orders following after, and all of them using the same decorum in their returning home. Now besides the reputation this gave to the City, there was a bridle by it put into the mouth of youth, and whilst in their Master's eye, they were obliged to carry themselves in those public places of Worship, as became the Solemnity, and with that reverence and attention, that such approaches to so great a being as God is, called for at their hands. A custom certainly which was the foundation of great proportions of virtue and goodness, and very instrumental to season the minds of young ones, with such principles as might give very great hopes to their Parents as well as others, of their future well doing in the World, of their being Ornaments to the City, as well as Comforts to their Relations.  
But since every man who could not live in the Country, hath had confidence enough to set up for a public Teacher in the City, and every corner almost of the Streets, hath tempted men with new faces, and new voices, alas! this excellent custom hath been very much laid aside, and what will be the noisome and pestilent consequence of it I dread to think. For when the Master runs one way, and Mistress another, and every Servant hath the liberty of gratifying his own humour, and pleasing his own fancy, 'tis impossible there should be order kept under that roof, or that an house so divided against itself, should long stand in peace, and from hence must needs proceed pride and censoriousness, quarrelling one amongst another about the best man and the best way, and sometimes contempt of the Master on the Servants side, because he is not so fully enlightened as to hear and savour such a precious man, as he himself does, I and it may be making (for Morality is a sorry thing with many of these men) the next bargain in his Master's shop, pay for his last Sabbaths profiting by the savoury doctrine of such a searching Preacher.  
But these are not the only impeachments I design against these courses. We all know very well, that that part of a man's age in which usually he is a Servant, is a part wherein the proritations of nature begin to be strong and violent, and young men's inclinations very eager after such objects as are suitable to their senses, and depraved desires. And now what if these young men, in their journeys through those several streets, with purpose to hear this or the other man, should be invited into a Tavern, or a worse house by idle companions, nay what if some of them should make it their pretence to their Masters purely to get opportunities to indulge themselves in such brutish and sensual enjoyments, would it not be far better to have seen them safely lodged in their Parish Churches? I surely this is without dispute.  
And though it may be some may say this is an uncharitable and irreligious suggestion of mine own, yet let them not provoke me too much, lest I prove it by plain instances. And alack when Youth before they have entered into serious consideration of things, before they have had time to make such observations as would be helpful to their future carriage and deportment in the World, before the Notices of Religion, which they received in their first education, be fetched from the brain, and settled in the Heart, when youth I say by such carelessness of their Masters have worn off the modesty of their minds, and contracted habits of sin, what will be the end of it? but dishonesty to their Masters, grief to their Relations, and ruin to themselves.  
I know this thing will be very grievous to many, whose purses as well as meeting-places are filled by such company, but I will assure them the reflection upon it hath been every way (out of that passionate esteem I have for that famous City) as burden some to me, and my private complaints of it to several worthy Citizens hath raised in them a fear suitable to mine own of the inconveniences of such a liberty to youth. And therefore let me conclude this with this assertion, that I have not published this upon the score of any spite or malice I have against any particular man, who differs from the public Constitution, but purely out of pity to those young men, who are committed to the care and government of such Masters, who by virtue of their very Principles put their Servants under the temptation of being ruined; for he that gives leave to such raw persons, to carve what spiritual food they please for themselves, whose years call for authoritative restraints, and prudent boundaries, does I am sure lend an helping hand to their destruction.  
And further I hearty desire these Masters to consider whether their constant disobedience to Authority, and violating the known Laws and statutes of the Realm, be not a greater encouragement to, and plea for the Servants rebelling against them, than any wise man would put into their hands? and withal whether the justice of God may not be provoked to chastise this their contempt of his Vicegerents by wicked and treacherous servants?  
But these are not all the Articles I have to draw up against these ways of separation, and consequently not the whole vindication I can make of this undertaking. I found by the unworthy reflections of many of the Nonconformists upon the present establishment of the Church, both in their Prayers and Preach, that Sacred and separated Order of men, who by a divine commission are dedicated to serve at the Altar, brought into a general dislike, nay contempt among the populacy. And though most of them are men of generous educations, and admitted to a freedom of converse with men of the best rank and sort, even from their first entrance into the Universities, yet so heated are the fancies of many persons by the influence of those bad names that are given them by the Heads of the Faction, that many times they meet with rude assaults, and unprovoked accosts as they pass the streets, nay even the Children, who through the immaturity of their years can discern neither good nor evil, are taught to point at such persons whose decent garbs declare them to be Clergymen. Now when I considered with myself, how necessary this Order of men is not only upon the score of that Divine Authority by which it is established in Scripture, but upon the account of policy and prudence, without the influence of whom upon the Minds of men, neither Governors shall keep their chairs, nor governed their bounds, but all things will be managed by heats and passions, by pride and ambition, by corrupt inclinations and fond desires, by ways and methods that are directly opposite to the commands of true Religion and Reason, to the Interest of States and Kingdoms, why I must tell you, this reflection did not a little encourage me to any just undertaking, whereby I might abate the esteem these persons have, and put them out of a capacity of doing so great a mischief as to settle prejudices in the minds of people against so necessary an Order of men as the Ministers are. But because I have given some plain hints of this in the ensuing discourse, I will proceed no further upon this head, and therefore  
Further I considered many Doctrines and darling Notions of this party of men, which are the common Themes and subjects of their discourse, and which indeed they vent with such a zeal as if all Religion was concerned and wrapped up in them, I say I considered them well, and found them really prejudicial to the progress of Religion in the hearts and lives of men; and upon that account I could not think myself injurious to religion nor evilly designed against God's People, by undertaking a work wherein these men now and then meet with such just Reproofs and seasonable rebukes as their deserts call for: Why should men who have mixed their own inventions with Christ's excellent Gospel, and pass them with an equal necessity upon the belief of their easy hearers, run away with the credit and reputation of being Gods Flect, who hear his voice, and keep close to his Ordinances, without blending them with any corrupt mixtures of their own, when in the mean time no men pester the World with newer notions, and falser glosses upon the sacred Texts of Scripture than they? give me leave though I might name many to instance in these two.  
First, That darling and serviceable Notion of praying by the Spirit, by which little else is meant, if their meaning may be gathered from their expressions, or at least as it is understood, (and they content it should be so) by the Common people, but a bold and confident uttering of a man's self to God in variety of words, with a readiness and fluency for some considerable time together. And he that hath got to this perfection, oh how gracious a man is he presently proclaimed? what an intimate and familiar acquaintance with God? How dear to Jesus Christ? and it is ten to one but he is sent out by vote and suffrage to be a pillar to support the Cause, and saluted by the wealthy Dames as their spiritual Guide and Pastor; for upon him is made good the prophecy of Zechariah, and the Spirit if Prayer and Supplication is poured out upon him.  
Now what a vile and false account is this of the Spirit of Prayer, which if rightly weighed, consists in nothing else, but in men's addressing to God, with a deep and profound sense of his Majesty, with a belief of his placability through the satisfaction that was made by Christ's oblation of himself once for all upon the Cross, with inward desires suitable to the Nature and Necessity of the things we want and petition for, with resentment of mind agreeable to the sins and impieties we have wandered into, and with Principles of gratitude for what we have enjoyed, expressing and displaying themselves by thankful acknowledgements and public returns. And whether this be done with words chosen beforehand or otherways, it is all one to God, for words reach not him at all, but are only necessary in prayer, when we are embodied, and one man is the Mouth of others to him.  
Now this being the true Notion of praying by the spirit, or of the spirit of Prayer, which is the more proper way of expressing it, would not any man wonder that men pretending to so much Godliness, should thus bring it from the heart the principal seat thereof, and lay it all as it were upon the tip of the tongue? would not any man admire these men should put such an advantage into the hypocrites hands to cheat and impose upon the unwary part of the world? for let them be never so fond of this Notion, yet they must know, if they be impartial in their reflections upon the actions of the ages past, that by this way numbers have been seduced into all manner of Heresies and Blasphemies, and he that could utter himself as if he were transported, and could talk of God as if he lay in his Breast, let his opinions or designs be what they would, yet he hath not wanted followers and admirers, and this will be so long, as so great a part of the World is , and caught with shadows instead of substance.  
Now when men once come (which makes to my design in hand) to make such things as these which are merely artificial, and depend very much upon the temperature of body, and confidence of mind, to be the measure of Religion, and signs of Grace, alas they often fall off from that just respect and value they own to moral goodness and essential righteussness, which is the life and soul of true Religion, and the whole stress of their zeal is laid out in little else, but keeping of days of their own appointment, wherein they may gratify the pride and frothiness of their Spirits, in making long harangues, and thereby gaining the applanse of illiterate people as men inspired, which faculty if but attained to by men of design, as we know many times it hath been, it is not to be imagined what tricks and cheats they are empowered thereby to put upon the Vulgar, and how cheerfully after they have by their melting expressions broken the people's hearts, they carry home the Pieces in their pockets, I and laugh at them too for being see easily gulled and deluded.  
But in the mean time I desire any man to tell me, whether this prove not very destructive to Religion, both as it swells and elevates the minds of those who are Masters of this ready and as they call it powerful utterance, and then as the unwary and sometimes blasphemous expressions, which hastily through the present heat of their Animal Spirits drop from their mouths, render first God cheap and vile to standers by, and then that important duty of Prayer itself nauseous and burdensome. And to speak freely, I know nothing hath made greater matter of sport to Atheists, and hath more strengthened them in their Atheistical notions, than such bold and saucy addresses to God, which some of these men (for God forbidden I should accuse all) have been guilty of.  
For what conceit can they have of a Being, to whom men pretending so great a veneration, talk so rudely, as if like the Heathen Gods he were to be propitiated by fawning words and flattering titles, by unmanlike whines and distorted faces? And therefore I do beseech these men who have so unhappily got such a power over the Common people into their hands, as to persuade them almost to any thing, to be more worthy and sincere in their instructing of them, and to remember that when the illiterate and meaner sort of people are once encouraged by them to such an unlimited exercise of their gifts, that they grow proud and haughty, and their littleknowledg puffs them up so that within a short time they grow too wise for their Teachers, and set up for themselves. And here hath begun this Nation's ruin, and Religion's bane; from hence London hath become another Amsterdam, and every mechanic fellow hath assumed the confidence to be a Teacher of the people. And therefore I am the more Sorry that men pretending to learning and wisdom should propagate a notion so every ways new, and withal of so pernicious effect and consequence, and that so lately experienced too.  
But lest by what I have said under this Head I should give any distaste to truly good and wise men, I shall conclude it with the words of that incomparable and never to be forgotten person King Charles the First, in which, Reader, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . thou hast the full sense of my mind in this particular. That though I am not against a grave and modest, discreet and humble use of Ministers gifts, even in public, the better to fit and excite their own and the people's affections to the present occasion, yet I know no necessity why private and single abilities should quite justle out and deprive the Church of the joint abilities, and concurrent gifts of many learned and godly men, such as the composers of the Service-book were.  
2. The other Notion which I think very prejudicial to Christianity in the Hearts and Lives of people, is that of the Spirit of bondage; A very great doctrine with the Nonconformists, and often in their mouths, though according to their description of it, I profess I can find no foot steps of it in all the New Testament, and yet certainly had it been so absolutely a necessary preparative to true conversion as they make it, we should have had an account both of the thing itself and withal of some signs and tokens, whereby we might know when we were in it, and how to get out of it, of all which the Gospel is silent. For that place of St. Paul wherein he says, we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, relates to the Jewish O economy, and is miserably perverted and wrested, as many of his other say are, when quoted to justify these men's doctrines of the bondage state. But because I know many persons will be desirous to know, what this thing is I am now accusing them of, I will therefore give them this brief account.  
Instead of defining Conversion and Regeneration, to be a real change of the Mind founded upon a sense and fear of God, and a true love to Christ, and upon a consideration of sin as an enemy to all those glorious Attributes wherewith the Divine Majesty is clothed, and by which he hath manifested himself to the World, and instead of engaging a man to an utter abhorrence and forsaking of all sin for the time to come, and to a vigorous pursuit of all those necessary virtues and graces which make up an holy life; all which words are plain, and easily derived into the most ordinary understanding; why these men tell you that before the work of conversion be wrought, and the man thereby entitled to the favour and love of God, he must be kept in a legal state, and chains and fetters must be clapped upon his feet, and the Law must hunt him down so, that in his soul there must be a soul confounding horror, a soul distressing anguish, and a soul distracting despair, and God must appear to him for some time together as an angry Judge without one smile in his Countenance, and take him by the hair of the head, and then throw him into a disconsolate dungeon, where not the least light must spring through the most minute crevise into his soul. And when the man hath been by this way sufficiently humbled, why then in time he shall have comfort administered to him, and be brought into the green and pleasant meadows of the Gospel, and a spirit within him shall enable him to cry Abba Father. And all this must be preached as absolutely necessary, so that some good men through such suggestions have been very much troubled at themselves as Hypocrites, because they were not brought to the obedience of the Gospel, by such rackings and convulsions of mind as these.  
But now as this notion is false, so it is very pernicious, and hugely slackens the exercise of true godliness.  
For how much time hath been spent by this means, in grievous complaints, in fearful apprehensions of God, in posting from one place to another for satisfaction, in inveighing against themselves, as if they were the veriest monsters upon the earth, which might to better purpose have been spent in those Instrumental parts of Religion, to wit, Prayer and Meditation, etc. from any of which hearty performed there naturally springs into the mind, not disturbed by troublesome and clouded fancies, joy and comfort; so that this Bondage state rather casts a man behindhand, than any ways helps him in his religious progress.  
Further, how many persons wearied with long expectations and waitings for the comforts they are promised, at last have thrown off all Religion, and looked upon it, and the Teachers of it to be nothing else but cheats, and that such melancholy thoughts have been imposed upon them on purpose to keep them in dependence upon the insolent and pragmatical Priests.  
And further, how many people who have been under the disadvantage of a melancholy complexion, have been so terrified with these unworthy and wrong thoughts of God, and have been kept so long under the power of them by some spiritual Empirics, that to be rid of them, they have laid violent hands upon themselves. And then lastly this Doctrine is so very mechanical, and the Body is so much concerned in it, and the Reason and understanding of men so little, that it makes way for all the Enthusiasm in the World, and becomes the Mother of all those wild fancies, the World these latter days hath been too sadly acquainted withal. And whether Religion get any ground by such things let any man judge, or how those men deserve to be cried up as the only spiritual Preachers, who vent Doctrines so destructive to Religion, I cannot tell.  
And now Reader after I have begged thy pardon for this tedious preface, (though I must confess I did not design it much shorter, when I first entered upon it,) I must tell thee that I am not alone in my high esteem for the Church of England; No, there are thousands in the Kingdom, and those men too whose excellent and Regular lives, and whose universal learning may justly be speak them a place amongst the most improved men, who are ready to defend this Church with both their Tongues and Pens, and of such I will only name two, the one is that incomparable person Dr. Stillingfleet, who in his Sermon upon Matth. 21.43. Pag. 158. calls this Church one of the best Churches in the Christian World; and in the same place complains that it should puzzle the wisest of men to find out expedients to keep it from ruin. The other is that excellent, and no less laborious than learned, Dr. Tillotson, in a Sermon before the King, where he tells us, that he had been according to his opportunities, not a negligent observer of the Genius and Humour of the several Sects and Professions in Religion, and upon the whole matter that he does in his Conscience believe the Church of England to be the best constituted Church this day in the Christian 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 freaks of Enthusiasm, and on the other hand from the gross follies of superstition. But if thou wilt neither believe them nor me for our bare saying so, read the following discourse without prejudice; and if through the strength of thy former received apprehensions, thou wilt not wholly be drawn over to us, yet I hope thou wilt be so far convinced, as to believe that neither the Church nor her Officers and public Dispenser's are so had and obnoxious, as some men through weakness and others through malice have represented them.  
Farewell.   

POSTSCRIPT.  
Reader,  
THe two first sheets of this small book were most of them preached before the Judges of Assize at Chelmsford in Essex, and therefore if thou findest any thing in them as an Appeal to them, I pray impute it to that. Further Reader, I must desire thee if thou meetest with the word [why] used improperly, as sometimes I find upon a perusal of the sheets it is, impute it to custom and a mode of speaking, upon which score it dropped so unwarily from my Pen. Whatsoever other faults there are, give me but the common allowance the ordinary miscarriages of a Press require, and I will ask no more.   

THE CONTENTS.  
THE Design of the Treatise laid down, 

1. To prove that we of this Church have all necessary advantages for gaining eternal life.  
2. To inquire how it comes to pass such a Church is so generally disesteemed. Pag. 5.    
The first of these proved at large by considering what is necessary to eternal life.  
Two things laid down: 

1. A sound Belief of all things necessary, and the Church found guilty of no defect in that particular. p. 6, 7.  
2. An Holy practice is found necessary, and the Church of England found abounding with every thing necessary to promote that. p. 10, usque 28.  
2. An enquiry how it comes to pass such a Church is despised. p. 28.    
Two sorts of men found faulty. p. 29.  

1. Professed Enemies; Those considered, 

1. As persons disaffected upon a worldly account. p. 29.  
2. Persons disaffected upon a pretence of Conscience and Religion. p. 31, 32, 33, 34.    
2. A consideration of false Friends as Enemies to the Church, and those ranked into two sorts: 

1. As Persons considered in their Political capacity; and two ways the Church proved to suffer by them. 

1. By their vicious lives and conversations, especially if they be men of Power and Authority. p. 35.  
2. By their neglecting the execution of those Laws that are made for the Church's Honour and Safety. p. 38.    
2. This Church proved to lose its esteem by false Friends considered as persons dedicated to an Holy Office. p. 42.     
Thirteen Reasons more given of the present contempt of the Church of England.  

1. The misconstruing of Judgements, and making every calamity the effect of God's Anger for the Church's encroachments upon the Rights of Christ. p. 46. 
Three useful and seasonable inquiries proposed to those who are so bold and forward in particularising the Reasons of God's Judgements. p. 51, 53, 55.   
2. Another Reason of the Churches suffering assigned from the jealousy of many of the Gentry (especially those who have swallowed down the Principles of Mr. Hobbs) lest the Clergy should encroach too much upon their power in those Countries where they live. p. 56.  
3. The Church's loss considered by erecting Schools of Academic studies, and thereby poisoning the youth of the Nation. p. 62.  
4. The Church's loss considered by idle tales against the Reverend Bishops and their regular Clergy. p. 65.  
5. Another account of the neglect of this Church from Simoniacal contracts. p. 70. 
Two injuries proved and asserted from hence. p. 71, 72. With an expostulation with the Lay-Patrons in order to a more conscientious disposal of their live. p. 73.   
6. The Church's damage by the careless and remiss attendance of many of her professed admirers, upon her public Devotions and Instructions. p. 74, 75.  
7. The Church's Honour proved lost by a careless consideration of those confusions that followed her dissolution by the pretended Power of the Long Parliament. p. 76.  
8. This Church found a great loser by misinterpreting and misapplying of several Texts of Scripture: Some of those Texts named, and the unworthiness and falseness of those interpretations reflected upon. p. 78, 79, 80, 81.  
9 The credulity and easiness of the Common people to take in whatsoever is suggested by men pretending to more than ordinary Sanctity and Holiness, proved another cause of the Churches present ruin. p. 82, 83, 84.  
10. The Church proved a loser by the Common people's stiff adherence to whatever they have heedlessly sucked in. p. 85.  
11. The ill success of the Church laid at the door of those Atheistical Principles that have spread so far and near in the Kingdom. p. 87. 
An enquiry made after the Reason of the present growth of Atheism. p. 88  
Four Reasons of it assigned:  

1. The changeableness of many men's Principles pretending to more than ordinary Godliness. p. 88, 89, 90, 91, 92.  
2. The wicked and vile actions of many boasting of extraordinary piety. p. 93, 94.  
3. Unworthy Scandals and Reflections fastened upon Churchmen. p. 96.  
4. The Non-execution of such Laws which are made on purpose to command the People to wait upon those Institutions, whereby Religion is instilled into their minds. p. 98, 99    
12. The Church proved to suffer inconvenience from the imprudent way of executing Justice by many of our subordinate Magistrates upon the Offenders of her Laws. p. 103, 104, 105, 106.  
Lastly, The Church's loss considered by those mean and scanty Provisions that are made for her Children in many places, especially in Corporation Towns. p. 107.   
Three Inconveniences arising hence:  

1. As thereby Clergymen are dispirited. p. 111.  
2. Or else debauched. p. 113.  
3. Or else discontented. p. 115.   
Conclusion. p. 116.  
An address:  

1. To the Nobility and Gentry. p. 117, 118, 119, 120.  
2. To the Nonconformists. p. 122, usque finem.    

A MODEST PLEA FOR THE CHURCH of ENGLAND.  John VI 68 
Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.  
ALL Societies and incorporated Bodies, Religious as well as Civil, are preserved by Love and Union, by being knit and keeping close together; and whatsoever Principles they are, that have any tendency to disperse and scatter, to divide and separate men in their Judgements and Affections, they ought to be shunned and abandoned, as the underminers not only of men's peace, and comfortable abode together, but of their real safety and security; and every man ought to fear the imbibing and sucking of them in, as he does the most violent Poison; the least dram of which is enough to infect those vital parts, which keep the body in good heart and plight. For such principles they heat men's fancies and naturally make them proud and insolent; and nothing can satisfy those who are commanded by them but Rule and Government, Authority and Dominion; and to curb and rein them in, as to any thing they have placed their Passions on, is to make them, like the wild Bull entangled in a fast-knotted Net, full of rage and fury, overthrowing every thing, with an impetuous violence, that stands in their way to the enjoyment of their desire object; and neither the Thrones of Princes, nor the Stalls of Prelates shall escape their rude Tongues, nor their ruder Hands, but both the one and the other, must be torn down on purpose to be a sacrifice to their Revenge and Lust, to their Malice and evil Nature.  
He that looks into History, and by the advantage of his standing in the World, can reflect upon the last thirty years' Transactions in this Kingdom, will quickly satisfy himself in this. He will find by virtue of such Principles, the best of Princes murdered; and that, which demonstrates the mischievous influence of these Principles indeed, this horrid and unaccountable Action done with all the pretences of Law and Justice, of Piety and Religion. Further, upon an easy search he will find the best of Churches, framed with all advantages for the keeping up of the Purity of Religion, and yet preserving that just honour and Grandeur, that belongs both to its Service, and its Officers; this very Church, first treated with scorn and reflected upon with the most bitter Sarcasmes, and then rob without the least Pity, though I am sure with great Dishonesty: with abundance of other spreading Evils, which did these men take no more pleasure to act than I do to name, they would not be so common in the world. And therefore it being so, it ought to be the care of every one of us to use our utmost diligence to discountenance, and, if possible, to bury all those Principles, from which we have experienced, and do withal foresee so dreadful mischiefs; and if we cannot do it by Arguments and Reason, the force of which through Prejudice and interest is resisted, why, those with whom the execution of the Laws is entrusted, the Civil Magistrates, according to their Oaths ought to punish the Propagators and Spreaders of them. And that they may be encouraged to so good a work, and so very necessary at this time, without which we must needs be involved in a certain, if not speedy ruin, these words are chosen to be treated upon at this time; Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. The Sense of which words, without any reflection upon the occasion of them, in brief is this: That so long as men can enjoy the clear Methods of Salvation, and have all those necessary Means and Helps, that the wants of their Souls require, in order to eternal happiness; so long as nothing is imposed upon them either in Belief or Practice, that naturally tends to obstruct and hinder the progress of Holiness and Religion in men's Minds; so long as men may under that Dispensation in which they were born and bred, as easily, nay sooner attain those divine Qualifications, those excellent Dispositions, those needful Graces, and useful Virtues which the Gospel commands every man's endeavour after, than they can under any other; So long as the Society to which they are united, is a true Society, in which are all Administrations according to the injunction of him who is the Master of it, why, whither should we go from it in order to better, and mend ourselves? Let us run into what Tents we please, let us betake ourselves to what numbers of men we can, that magnify themselves with the most glorious Titles, and profess themselves the only Favourites and Intimadoes of the Holy Jesus; why, yet we can but attain to eternal Life, and that I am sure to as good, nay better purposes, all things considered, we may do where we are already; and therefore, Lord, to whom shall we go? for in that Church, in which thou hast planted us, and in that Church, which thou hast for so many years watered with thy blessing, we may have eternal Life; and if men can honestly propound any other End in choosing either their Religion or their Opinions besides gaining this eternal Life, why, let them follow their own Fancies, and be led by the wild fire of their own headlong imaginations. And now I suppose by this time you may easily see into my Design, which consists of these two things.  

1. To prove, That we of this Church have all necessary Advantages for gaining of eternal Life, and therefore have no just occasion to run away, and separate from it.  
2. To inquire, How it comes to pass that a Church in which we have all the Advantages for getting eternal Life, should meet with such Contempt and Disregard, should be in so sick and declining a Condition?   
But before I enter upon either of these, I must needs make this Protestation, That, I bless God, I come not here to express mine own private Passions, nor to act revenge for any particular injury I have received from those who by their Positions, and their Practices do insinuate into the belief of the credulous World, that we of this Church do shut men out of eternal Life. No, had it not been for an hearty zeal I have for the Church my Mother, and for all your Interests, as they are wrapped up in this Church's Happiness, I could easily have chose a Subject that would have run more smoothly, as to some men's apprehensions and affections, and given, it may be, less displeasure. But, jacta est alea; here I stand; and considering the Circumstances in which you Noble and Worthy Persons are, the Trust committed to you, and the Oaths that are upon you to discharge that Trust, I will be plain, and if I must be censured for it, I will bear it patiently, because 'tis for my love to the best constituted Government in the World: Therefore  
1. I will prove that we have all necessary Advantages in this Church, of which we are Members, for eternal Life, and therefore need not go away from it; which will best appear if we consider what is absolutely necessary to the gaining of this eternal Life. And upon enquiry we find but two things, in neither of which, I am sure, the Church of England is wanting or deficient. 

1. A sound Belief of all necessary Articles and Propositions of Faith.  
2. An holy Practice of all Duties that are enjoined us.    
1. For a sound belief of all things necessary in order to eternal Life, we stand upon as good ground as any sort of men in the Christian World. For our Belief is of nothing but what is plainly laid down, or easily deduced out of Holy Scripture, and there is not an Article which we can say was framed by a Pack of Men met together barely to advance an Interest, or serve a Passion. We hear nothing in all the Thirty Nine, of the necessary belief of a fictitious Purgatory, or a Sense-contradicting Transubstantiation: We are not commanded under the pain of Hell and Ruin, to believe the Infallibility of an usurping Pope, or the Meritoriousness of good Works: We meet with none of those Trent-doctrines, that were framed by faction, and voted to no other purpose than to keep up the present Pomp and Grandeur of the Court of Rome, which were at first started by interest, and have ever since (to the violation of the Peace of Europe) been kept on foot by Pride. Nor is the Lawfulness of taking up Arms against our Sovereign, when he, as we fancy, will not promote Religion, and advance God's Glory, and secure the Interest of his elect and darling People in their Civil and Religious Privileges, one of the Articles of our Faith. No, no, our Belief is of such things as are in Scripture, and were entertained as Doctrines and determined so (in subordination to the Authority of Scriptures.) by the four first General Councils. And indeed our Church would have been very much to blame, if under a pretence of rooting out unnecessary and ungrounded Articles of Faith, she had invented others as useless, and as dangerous, having neither face nor footing in the Holy Scriptures. This would have been to have propagated Division so long as the world had stood, and given others too great an occasion to believe that it was not Conscience, but some other Principles, of another Dye, that put them upon a Separation from the Church of Rome. And therefore she took care that the Terms of her Communion in point of Doctrine should be few and obvious; such as no man that is not obstinate and resolved should deny a ready compliance with: and if any man can rise up and prove, that there is one Doctrine that hath any malign or poisonous influence either upon men's Understandings, or else upon their Manners, I will stand obliged to quit the power I have of mine own disposal, and surrender myself his Bondsman. Nay, so little liable are our declared Doctrines to any Imputation, so unquestionably agreeable to Holy writ (the Protestant Standard of all Doctrines,) that our very Adversaries themselves cannot in all their Declamations against our Church, forbear extolling the exact Care and Wisdom of our first Reformers in this particular, and most of them testify their readiness to subscribe to the Truth thereof, as I could prove from their declared Opinions in several of their printed Treatises. Yea, if need be, I could make good this following Story, which I think is no small Vindication of our Church's Doctrines, That one of them who is now the Oracle of their Party, to whom upon all occasions they apply themselves, and in whose Judgement they repose no little confidence, though I shall not name him, because he hath been brought so much upon the Stage already; I say, I could make good that this very Person, when being entrusted, and invited to assist in drawing up something which might be a band of Union, and enlarge the Pale of this present Church, did propose that our Articles might be reduced to Thirty Six, (though, but for his affected singularity, he might as well have said Thirty and nine) and those made the Conditions of our Communion. And according to the wont Clemency of most of those, who call for Toleration, when they cannot rule and govern, pressed that whoever refused Subscription to them, should undergo the penalty of being banished his Native Kingdom; an Expression that begot in the breast of a late Reverend Prelate, that sat by, a resentment agreeable to his known Candour and Moderation, and extorted from him a smart reproof of the haughty Separatist for his apparent Cruelty: and All this I think makes good that 'tis not our Doctrine from which these men can fetch the Grounds and Reasons of their going from us.  
2. Let us therefore descend to the other thing requisite to Eternal Life, which is an holy and upright Practice, and well-composed Life, and a regular Conversation, which are the chiefest things in which Holiness does consist; and he who esteems himself so upon any other score, he labours under a very foul mistake. For intance, He that Saints himself upon the account of some sudden and vehement slashes of indiscreet and sulphureous Zeal, of some imagined Raptures, and supposed intimacy and correspondence with all the three Persons in the Trinity; he that strokes his Breast, as the only acquaintance with God and Christ, purely for his listing himself into such a Party, and entertaining such Opinions as the good Apostles and Primitive Christians never had any knowledge or conviction of: further, he that hath no other Plea for his excelling Goodness, than his observing uncommanded Fasts, and slighting Days appointed by Authority for solemn Commemoration of past Blessings, and hearty petitions for Mercies wanted; he that hath no other way to make out his internal Graces, than by a solemn Wink and a meager Face, than by a scornful pity of the ignorance of his Betters, and bewailing with a doleful sigh the carnal state of his Neighbours, (though indeed they understand Religion in its Design and end every way better than himself) than by declining these public Places of Worship and running into the Camps of separation; I say, he is false in the Measures he takes of himself, and does not weigh himself in a proper and allowed Balance. For these things we find may be done by men of the most debauched Minds; by men every way wicked in their Principles: Nay, these things have been done, and taken up on purpose to carry on the most villainous Designs that History can Parallel. And now in this Notion of Holiness we will give other Churches leave to go before our own.  
But if we take Holiness in a Gospel sense, in a Conversation suitable to those several Circumstances in which we are, those several Relations in which we stand, those several Dependencies that we have; Then I will say, why does any man go from this Church of ours? For here he hath all Advantages for Eternal Life. Take Man as he is God's Creature, the Workmanship of his hands, and therefore bound to pay Homage and Fealty to him, which you know is most naturally done upon our knees by solemn Prayer; Why, let me seriously beg of any wise man to inform me, what we want to this end by way of help and aid in our so much despised Church? We are permitted, nay commanded, to pray to God in a Tongue that is known; we pray by words apt and significative of the sense they bear, and with Prayers abounding with that sense, which no man that is unprejudiced and wise can except against: We pray to God through Jesus Christ, presuming neither upon our own worth and merit, nor yet upon the Intercession of any Saint or Angel; and whether this be not as good a way to express all our thoughts and affections, as by any uncertain extemporary effusion, where we are not certain of avoiding rude and saucy periods, and of hearing things sometimes bordering upon Blasphemy, and oftener upon nonsense, I leave you all, who can make just reflections upon things, to judge. In a word; In our Prayers we have as great advantages to pray by the Spirit, it being taken in its proper sense, nay greater than others, who pretend so highly to it, have: And the reason is, because we engage this Spirit to come in to our help and aid, by our orderly compliance with those Duties of Submission and Obedience to Authority, which this Spirit itself hath so strictly enjoined in Holy Scripture: And you know our Saviour tells us, Luke 8.18. To him that hath shall be given, that is, the more Graces and Virtues our Souls are adorned withal, the more still will God bless us in the improvement of them.  
2. If we take a view of those Advantages we have for Eternal Life by Preaching, by wholesome Documents and Instructions; why, I am not afraid to say that we have no Reason to throw ourselves out of our Mother's Arms upon this account, or to forsake her for the dryness of her Breasts; for so long as we are told all things necessary to Salvation, and those several pressing Reasons why we ought to practise them, (and indeed he must be a very ordinary man who is clothed with sacred Orders, and cannot teach us this:) Why, though it be our allotment to be under the guidance of a Minister, who cannot deliver himself with that affection, whose Temper of Body will not allow him such degrees of becoming Zeal; why, we must make up that want in him, by raising our own Affections, in our retirements, before we attend the Public, to an higher pitch, and better strain; and then I am sure every thing that is Divine, and tends to Holiness, though not pronounced with that advantage others do, yet will be welcome and delightsome to us: For it is not, commonly, so much the Dulness of the Man we hear, as the Deadness of our Affections to him, that makes us complain of the unprofitableness of his Ministry. And I have known several, who so long as Interest or Acquaintance, or any thing else of equal influence, hath kept up their kindness or affection to any public Preacher, they have followed him with greediness, heard him with attention, and praised him to excess; and their Minds never received greater advantage nor their Affections a more vigorous warmth, than under such a Person's Ministry: And yet all of a sudden, let but an unseasonable quarrel arise, and their former correspondence be abated, and a grudge or two spring up, either upon a little or no Reason, in their minds, and presently the same man becomes a flat and heavy Preacher, and they sit very uneasily under him, or else join themselves to some other, who by chance hit their Fancy and Humour, when they were upon their ramble in order to find out one to profit by. But because this is a mighty Pretence made by the present Separatists at this day, and a warrant, as they think, for their Disobedience to the present Laws, I will make a few reflections upon it. And here 1. I will state the Notion of profiting, and then consider whether we may not sufficiently profit according to that Notion under our established Pastors and Teachers, without gadding after other men.  
Now profiting can but possibly relate to these things; either to the Information of our Judgements, as to all things necessary to be believed and known; or else to the raising of our Affections in a just proportion to the Nature and Excellency of those things so believed and known; or to a more even and resolute Practice of them.  
First then as to the Information of our Judgements as to things necessary, we may certainly meet with it amongst the allowed Teachers, especially considering how few they are, and how they have been drawn up into a sum by the Ancient Church: I confess my circumstances call upon me to be oftener preaching than hearing, but yet this I must needs say, and I fear not a blush in saying of it, That as often as I can get opportunity to enjoy other men's Labours, I usually meet with such Discourses, as may vie with those men's, whatever they would persuade the easy world to the contrary; especially, which I have no reason to doubt, if their Popular Sermons be fraught with no more coherent Sense and Reason than their printed Discourses are.  
I do not love to make Reflections upon any man's Labours, who designs a good to the World; and whatsoever Books published by these men have done any service to the Minds of men, I hearty bless God for: But yet this I must needs say, That we may meet with Sermons from Persons under the Countenance and Encouragement of our Church, that may equal any, nay, if I had said, for strength of Reason, for weightiness of Argument, for fit and apposite quotations of Texts of Scripture, for apt and proper Terms and Expressions, may be judged to excel any or most that the Brethren of the Separation have set forth, I think I had not transgressed the Lines of Truth: But my Design being to convince men's Judgements, and not to heat their Passions, I will forbear such Comparisons. However, this I am sure, (which serves my present undertaking) that we may from the authorized Ministry come to the knowledge of all Doctrines that are necessary; and he that does not preach them, and give such Reasons for them, as the Natures of such things will bear, neither understands his Bible, nor yet hath well studied those Articles of the Church that he hath formally subscribed unto: to suppose which of any Person dedicated by an Holy Office to God, I think is very uncharitable.  
Well then, cannot you of the Separation, for to you I speak these things, meet with as good Reasons for the Being of a God, for the Truth of the Messiah, for the Necessity of Internal Holiness, for the carrying yourselves suitably to that Creature-state in which you are, and so for all other Requisites to be known, in our Legal places of Worship, and from Men invested with a Legal, as well as Divine Authority; as from others, who take up this public way of Preaching without the allowance, nay, against the Command of the Laws of their Country? I tell you, to deny this, is to be prond and vain, and to arrogate too much to yourselves. A fault too common amongst some men, who would make others believe they are the most dead and mortified persons in the World, and yet at the same time, care not whose Reputation they waste and spoil, so they may advance their own.  
2. The other way whereby we profit, is by having our Affections raised, suitably to the Nature and Excellency of things believed and known. Now, I must confess, while we are in the Body, and many Notices of things are conveyed into our Understanding through our Senses, we have need of all agreeable helps to reconcile us wholly to Religion, and the several Duties of it; and he that hath the advantage of a mellow Voice, of a taking Delivery, of a Gesture not fantastical but winning upon the truly wise, as well as others, he ought to be esteemed and loved, and the Church ought to judge her happiness the greater, in having the aid and assistance of such a Man. But alas! this is not founded in every man's Temper; and if some men would purchase it with all they do enjoy, it is not to be bought. And therefore where it is, 'tis to be prized, and where 'tis not; men ought not to be undervalved; for that is to be so unreasonable, as to despise them for what they cannot help; nay, 'tis to reflect upon him that made them.  
Well, but be it so, that these things contribute very much to the raising of our Passions; pray tell me, have the Nonconformists engrossed this kind of Temperature of body to themselves? can none but they speak with loud voices, with a becoming Pathos, with a smart Accent? are all the dutiful Sons of the Church either troubled with Colds, or weakened by Catarrhs, or almost choked as soon as they begin to speak, with a defluxion of Rheum? and all this a Judgement upon them for their Conforming? No such matter; let but these men lay aside their prejudices, and attend our public Churches, and they shall quickly find out men, whose Countenances are as grave and awful, whose Voices are as melodious and sweet, whose Expressions are as weighty and well chosen, as any of the separated brethren's are; and consequently, who are every way as well fitted by natural Gifts of Body, to raise men's Affections, as the others are: I and these men are not sprinkled here and there, but you shall find them in most Countries and Cities. And therefore no man can have any reason upon this account to leave our Church. And if this thing was but searched to the bottom, I believe we should find something else, besides the Information of their Judgements, and the raising of their Affections, that these men place their profiting in; but I list not to render any persons, pretending to Religion, ridiculous. However before I leave this head, I will venture at so much, that when I consider abundance of these People, that run into these holes and corners, how peevish and wayward they are, how proud and haughty, disdaining every person that goes not along with them into the by-paths of Separation, reflecting upon them as poor carnal and ignorant Creature: further, when I consider how ignorant and illiterate many of them are, not understanding the common Reasons that may be given for Religion, and those several Truths that make up the Body of it; and how most of their skill and cunning chief consists in repeating and making use of some broken pieces of Scriptures, and discoursing of Jesus Christ in a rude and nonsensical way: Further, when I consider how little they understand the Difference betwixt us and them, and what slender Reasons they give for their leaving our public Worship, and how readily they follow any man that separates, purely upon that score, though his Principles do more widely differ from what they pretend are their own, than theirs from ours: Further, when I consider the bitterness of their Spirits, expressed by their very angry looks, when they meet any of us in our accustomed Garbs; and by those unchristian as well as ungentile and unmannerly Titles with which they load us: Why, these, with many other things that might be named, do persuade me, that there is not so much profit reaped by hearing these men, as they would make the World believe; for I am sure these things argue much of the Leaven of the Pharisee, but nothing at all of the Temper and Spirit of the Gospel: and he that hath no better Evidences than these, of his Saintship, I am sure will find no other than the foolish Virgin's entertainment at the last Day.  
3. Let us take a view of the Advantages we have for Eternal Life, by a Holy Life, as this Holiness is expressive of itself in those Duties that belong to man, especially our Governors and Superiors. And here I am sure the Members of our Church stand upon a better ground than any other sort or profession of men whatsoever; and for the defence of this Truth, I dare enter the Lists both with the Conclave and the Classis at the same time together. Let any man, though prejudiced to the utmost, stand up, and tell me, where and when he hath met a man truly governed by the Principles of the Church of England, that hath taken the Sword into his hands, upon any pretence whatsoever, against his Lawful Sovereign; or that hath made it his trade and business to whisper things against his Governors and to insinuate Prejudices into the Minds of his Neighbours against the present management of Affairs.  
Where can you find a man amongst us, who, contrary to the Commands of his Lawful Sovereign hath entered into an Oath, framed and drawn up on purpose to overthrow the Fundamental Rights and Privileges of the people, as well as the Essential Prerogative of his Prince? much less can you show me a man, managed by the Doctrine and declared Opinion of this Church, who hath shut the door, and kept close Guards upon the Chief Magistrate of his Country, and after that hath barbarously embrued his hands in his Princes Blood. No, no, you must go beyond the Alps and the Tweed to find out such as these. The true Members of our Church are in this Particular untainted; and so far as men are under the guidance of her Pastors, and the influence of her Discipline, so far they imitate the first Ages of Christianity; wherein men knew, how to advance the credit of their Religion, by suffering, but never by resisting: for they knew that Government was an Ordinance of God.  
4. If we proceed further, and take a view of those several Instances of Holiness, which are expressed by an affable and modest Carriage to our Equals, by an extensive Bounty to our inferiors, whose straits and wants call for our relief; certainly we have in this Church as great Advantages for the exercising of these, as in any whatsoever. We have Bibles in our Houses to read, and are allowed the reading of them as well as they, and I presume we can read as well as they; (for though some of them proudly do engross the Spirit, yet sure they will leave the Letter to us:) and I think without pride, we may say, that we have Judgements and Understandings, to receive those Notices of things the Word of God brings unto us; and if so, why may not we be in as good a Capacity to practise all those Virtues, which these Relations call for, and are so plainly laid down in the Holy Word? Why may not we, if we exercise our Natural Abilities, and seriously weigh those pressing Arguments, that are fetched from Hopes and Fears, those great Foundations of a pious Life; why, I say, may not we fix and establish in our Minds, those Divine Graces the Gospel recommends unto us? such as patience and Humility, Charity and Self-denial, Courage and Resolution, Temperance and Chastity, etc. Especially considering, we have the Spirit of God ready to help and cooperate with all our honest endeavours. For when our Adversaries are cool and sober, this they dare not deny; which if they do, as God knows, in some of their heats they are so unwary as to assert, why they are at the same time so monstrously uncharitable as to call in Question the Salvation of all those Worthies of the Church that have been ever since the first Reformation; and our Judicious Morton, our Devout and Pious Hall, and our Learned Sanderson, with vast Numbers of others, must (according to these men's Opinions, that every Member of our Church, barely by being so, hath forfeited his Interest in God's good Spirit's assistance) be adjudged to be now scorching in the Flames of Hell. A Censure, enough to stir the choler, and ferment the Blood of any man, who hath but the least spark of Humanity lest within him!  
And though I know they plead for themselves, that our Ordinances, which should be the instruments to convey these Divine Principles and Graces into us, are stained by impure mixtures, by uncommanded Ceremonies; Why, when they can find out a Discipline without any Ceremony, purely fetched out of the Word of God, delivered in as plain and obvious terms as the Mosaic Dispensation was, and declared by God, that it was his will and pleasure in every Circumstance that that Government should be maintained and submitted unto; when they can present us with a Model having nothing of Humane and Prudential Determination in it, we will answer them; and to do it before, is at once to spend our Time and our Breath in vain. Only I take leave upon this occasion to make this digression, which I think is not unsuitable to the design I have in hand:  
That I have been a very impartial Considerer of this Objection, and by virtue of my first Converse in the World, these and such like suggestions from men whom I was taught to believe were the only Children of God, had a very fair hearing in my Breast, and I was willing to incline to those Arguments proposed by them for the Defence of that noise and bustle they made in the World: But when I came afterwards to consider the Authority wherewith Princes both upon Natural and Revealed Principles and Grounds are invested, and the miserable confusions that are consequent upon slighting or resisting that Authority; when I considered the great Reasons for making Laws, and the necessity of keeping up their reputation, and paying a constant Veneration to them, if we would be preserved in any tolerable degrees of Peace and Safety: further, when I considered, that the very Reasons why the Brethren of the Separation declare their dislike of our Ceremonies, are disowned by our Church; witness their declared Opinion of the Sign of the Cross, and Kneeling at the Sacrament in the very Rubric; and that these men are forced to make new and unheard of distinctions to render them unlawful, witness a Book printed some time since, by one of the Chiefs of them, against a Member of our Church: Further, when I considered, that if there was any Reason to scruple the Lawfulness of these things, yet it was not so great, nor so apparent, as the Reasons against Schism and Disobedience; and that the complying with the one could not possibly be so dangerous to all Societies of men as the engaging in the other: These, with many other considerations, satisfied me, not only in the Convenience, but, considering the present differences in the Kingdom, in the Necessity of yielding Obedience to the established Orders of the Church, and I could never yet get leave of myself to concur in Judgement with one, now at this time much admired and followed in the City, 
Mr. Jenkins.  That the laying aside the Ceremonies of the Church was a sufficient compensation for all that Blood and Treasure that had been spilt in the late unnatural and bloody War; but wish with all my heart that they had continued till the general conflagration of the world, rather than such a war should have commenced; for I am certain that the necessary results and consequences of the one are a thousand times more prejudicial to the honour and reputation of the Protestant Cause, than the continuance of the other could have been, had they been as had, nay many degrees worse than our interested and zealous Adversaries have made them: And we are able to answer all Arguments raised against a Cross, or a Surplice, when we cannot without steeled Brows, and seared Consciences vindicate and defend the late Rebellion. But in short, this, in my apprehension (and I am sure I am not prejudiced) is so baffled a Cause, that I wonder men of Parts and Learning are not ashamed to offer at the Vindication of it: and I do verily believe those men that now make themselves the Heads of these dividing Parties, would not assume the confidence to fix such odious Names upon the so well defended Ceremonies of the Church, and upon us for our peaceable and obedient using of them, did not they meet with so many ignorant and uninstructed people, who are prepared, (upon the account of those great pretences these men make to a more severe Holiness than others,) to believe whatsoever they confidently bolt out, without a suitable evidence and proof; and who are pertinaciously resolved to drive on their Secular Interest, by raising their own heights, upon the spoils and ruins of other men's Godliness and Reputation. And when things are looked in to the bottom, we shall find, that this is the Foundation of very much of our Nonconformity, which is now so bold and daring (for, God forbidden I should lay this Imputation at every man's door;) and if we once could arrive to that happiness, as to make the Common People wise, and the Leaders of them in these forbidden Tracks silent, we should quickly find Obedience to our Laws a more general thing, than, God knows, to the grief of all wise observers, now it is. And though I know this Opinion of mine is contradicted by many persons (who upon other accounts do not want my just esteem;) yet so long as the Common People are heedless as to the several Notions they suck in, and imposed upon in no things sooner, than those which ought to be esteemed of greatest weight and moment, I mean the Matters of Religion, which have an immediate relation to the Interest and Happiness of their Souls; so long as their Ignorance and more slender thoughts of things expose them to Pride and Self-conceitedness, to such opinions of their own narrow and straitened Conceptions as for want of more mature considerations of things, bear down all Arguments derived from the preservation of Humane Societies, from the Dignity and Sacredness of Princes, founded in being God's Vicegerents here on Earth; so long as they cannot, by reason of the dulness and uninstructedness of their Minds see into the ruins and desolations that do infallibly attend all Disobedience to Authority, but are apt to sancy a better state of things, were they all managed by the present little Models they have either framed themselves, or else by the silly suggestions some illiterate and yet pretended Rabbi, have lodged in their idle and unfurnished heads; why, so long I must crave any man's excuse if I do not assent to those men's Judgements, who with no small degrees of confidence, and with great pretensions to a more intimate acquaintance with State-Maxims, assert an Universal Toleration the only way to recover the Church, and to wrack Fanaticism and Sedition. And had the late Author of the Discourse of Humane Reason lest his Books a while, and walked about the Neighbouring Markets and made just Observations of the improvements of those men who make up those crowds and numbers there, I am apt to believe he would have considered better, before he had published a Book so destructive of all the Fundamental Notions of Government and Public Communities; a Book wherein things of the greatest Importance are lest to those, who by all the pains we can take with them, can be hardly brought to a right understanding of common sense, and the most obvious and natural Duties of Religion. And thus having proved, and I hope to satisfaction, that the Church of England is wanting in nothing that refers to our Belief or Practice, and so consequently to the gaining of Eternal Life, I will proceed to the next enquiry, to wit,  
2. How it comes to pass, that a Church thus furnished with all Advantages to Eternal Life, should meet with such Contempt and Disregard? And here, upon enquiry, we shall find this principally proceeds these ways; 

(1.) From professed Enemies;  
(2.) From false Friends: both which very much hinder the Church's progress in the Hearts and Affections of its Members, and spoil its deserved Reputation.    
1. We will consider the Church's professed Enemies, and of them we shall find two sorts of persons pecking at her.  
1. Some upon a Worldly and Secular account. 'Tis too well known, that in the late Combustions, many men warmed their fingers at those fires they themselves had kindled; and though splendid Pretences for Religion and Pure Worship were at the top, yet a sordid aim at the Church's Patrimony and Revenue was at the bottom of their Designs; and no sooner had success crowned their unworthy undertake, but they presently fell to sharing other men's Legal Portions, and Spiritual Allotments: And though they pretended a Spirit of Self-denial, on purpose to put the fairer gloss upon their ungodly Quarrels, and to allure the Common and easily mistaking People into their service; yet we find, no sooner did they apprehend themselves out of danger, by the Fall and Ruin of the Royal Party, but presently they forget the so much cried up Ordinance of Self-denial, and fall a voting considerable shares of this World's Blessings to one another, and Church-Lands went at as easy a rate then, as they did at the great Alienation of them; and scarce a Man that had been active, either in City or in Country for their Cause, but he must have a feeling of those Spoils and Booties. All which we know by an happy Restoration, in course returned to their true Proprietaries again. And can we think that those who felt the sweets of these enjoyments, have lost their former Tastes and Relish? No, No, to fancy this, is to be guilty of too careless an Observation; for if they had, what makes them privately among themselves to this day buy and sell those very Estates? which I think is no hard matter to make out. A thing which if but looked in to the bottom, would easily convince our Governors, what confidence ought to be reposed in such men's Pretences to Loyalty and Obedience, and withal the safe Condition their. Estates and Liberties are in, while these men have a full liberty to make their Parties, and strengthen their Interest in the affections of people of all sorts and ranks whatsoever. Well, and how must these men's linger and desires after these Estates be fulfilled? By what Methods can they hope to get into the Saddle, and ride upon the High places of the Earth again? Why, the only way is through the ruin and downfall of the Church; and how must this be accomplished? why, Slur it all the ways you can; call it a Limb of Antichrist, an encourager of the Beast that ascends out of the bottomless Pit, a supporter of Ecclesiastical Tyranny, and insinuate into the common people's minds, that she stands betwixt them and their Gospel privileges, and that there is as direct an opposition betwixt her and the Church God hath instituted, as there was betwixt Dagon and the Ark; with many other vile reflections of this Nature, and then you have half done your work. For these men know, let their pretences be what they will, that when the Church totters, the State hath a fellow feeling with it, that they live and die together; and therefore they itch after its Ruin, which they think they cannot better promote than by slandering of her, and when that is done, they fancy, as well they may, a quick possession of those far Lands they so cheaply bought, and so deservedly have lost.  
2. This excellent Frame and Constitution suffers from men, who are enemies, upon a pretence of Conscience and Religion. And here I might bring you a Catalogue of various Sects and Parties of men, who, though they cannot agree amongst themselves, when they come to divide the Church's spoil, yet all combine together to make the Church itself their spoil; and in pursuit of this, by what Names do they describe this excellent Church in their Prayers and Preachments, but by the Whore of Babylon, the Cruel Dragon, that pours out floods of poisonous water upon the Woman, the Slayer of the Witnesses, with many other of this Nature? And her pious Prayers must be scorned under the Notion of dull and formal things, fit for dark Times, and for none to use but such, as understand not the impressions of Gods good Spirit. And her Reverend Prelates, instead of the ancient and Primitive Appellation of Fathers, must be branded with the Name of Step-fathers'; instead of Pillars, Caterpillars, whose Houses are haunted, and their Episcopal Chairs poisoned by the Spirit that bears rule in the Air. And for her Ceremonies, they forsooth, must be reported to be kept on foot on purpose, to symbolise with, and show our affections to the Church of Rome; and this must be said with a great deal of confidence, notwithstanding the men that suggest it, know and are convinced at the same time, that no men of any Profession whatever, have thrust sharper Darts into the sides of that pretended Catholic Mother than the Sons of the Church have done. And though I know this looks very disingenously, and I think I had not wronged my Charity if I had said Dishonestly; yet nothing is more common amongst men who study the Interest of a Party, and are resolved to six themselves if possible, in the Chair of Authority and Government. The most useful Virtues must be made Vices, and Worthy Actions that serve the Public and argue a true Generosity of Mind in him that does them, yet must be misconstrued, and the Principles of the Actions censured, and some Circumstance or other thrust into them, whereby the Credit of them may be blasted.  
Thus when Archbishop Land took care for preventing the subversion of the Church of England, by the spreading of the Socinian Heresies, in suppressing books of that nature, Mr. Burton charges it as one of his Crimes upon him, reproaching him for suppressing those Books for no other Reason, but because they magnified the Authority of the Holy Scriptures. A Censure as full of Spite and evil Nature as most I have met withal.  
But thus it is, and, as far as I can see into Affairs and Tempers, will be so long as some Designs are on foot and some sorts of Spirits are permitted.  
Let us say what we will, and enter into all manner of serious Protestations that we are no Papists, neither aim at the Introduction of Popery in the least; Let the Members of our Church write with never so much strength and weight against the Innovations of that Church; nay, let the Life of our Church be begun in the Death of many Worthies, for their resolved and steadfast Opposition to that Church: why, yet that we are Papists, or else inclinable thereunto being a pretty way to convey Prejudices into the Common People against us, and to draw off their Affections to our Persons, that thereby they may the more easily be alured from our Doctrine and Public Administrations; why, to this good End, and that the Glory of God may be magnified, and the Power of his pure Ordinances demonstrated, in the destruction of the Sons of Babylon, we must be Papists, and we must drink of the same Cup of Fornication that Mother of Harlots does; and when we writ against her, 'tis but a Copy of our countenances, for in our hearts we are for Rome.  
And after all this can any man wonder, that a Church so battered at by Persons professing more than ordinary Sanctity and Holiness, and expressing that Holiness by so many formal and taking ways, by all that their Hands and Tongues, their Faces and Gestures are capable of; that a Church thus misrepresented and withal to persons of weak Judgements, and yet strong conceits, as God knows most of the common people are; can we, I say, wonder that a Church surrounded and stormed by such Enemies as these, lives not in its ancient Splendour, in its just and due Esteem? And what will be the end of permitting all this? (though I must confess I have many sad Reflections about it) why, that I leave to the Magistrates of the Kingdom, who have great Estates to preserve, and ancient Families to support and continue, to consider of.  
And thus having shown you the Damages this Church sustains by open Enemies, we will now proceed to and take notice of the Injuries she suffers from false Friends: And here also we find Two Sorts of Persons whom she hath no reason to be proud of. (1.) Some whom we will consider as Persons in their Political Capacity, as Members of the Civil Body; and Two ways the Church suffers by them: 1. By their vicious Lives and Conversations; especially if the men who lead these Lives be men of Power and Authority. It is observed that among the Common People, things, though never so excellent in themselves, though never so conducive to advantageous purposes, yet they lose their esteem, when men of profligate Lives have the Manage of them. And though I have to assault my Betters with any rudeness, and both my Function and Education oblige me to Decency both in my words and carriage; yet give me leave to be a little plain with you that are our Country Patriots, and to entreat you all who by the good liking of our great Lord the King sit in higher Places than others, to vindicate the Honour of our Church, to recommend it to the choice and love of all within your Neighbourhood, by your sober Lives, and worthy Conversations. It was an excellent Saying of an Honourable Person, some years ago; who, when lying upon his deathbed, did thus express himself; That he had looked into all Forms and considered all Models of Discipline and Governmen, and found none so agreeable both to the Apostolical Example and Primitive Practice as the Discipline and Government of the Church of England; and that he found but one unanswerable Argument against it, and that was the Lives of too many who profess an outward kindness to it. Oh did our Magistrates comport themselves according to the Rules of the Holy Gospel, did they countenance Godliness and Sobriety, and punish all those notorious Impieties, which are so obvious to the Common People, and which, where only the Laws of Nature have their Influence, come under censure; did they in their several Public Meetings carry themselves with that Gravity which becomes their Places, and which indeed their places (if they would keep up the necessary Reputation of them) call for at their hands: Further, did they encourage the Public Preachers by their constant Attendance, and a Deportment, whilst they are there, significative of that Veneration they have for the Ordinance; did they all in general lay restraints upon themselves, and afterwards punish others for their usual and yet horrid Oaths and Curses; were their Houses Schools of Discipline and good order; did they speak of Religion as persons having a sense of it upon their Minds, and as persons abhorring the new odious way of drolling upon it; Oh! methinks than I see Faction and Sedition dread the Common Streets and Public Houses, and with shame creeping into holes and corners: methinks I see this Church so fitted to all the Purposes of Religion, lifting up its head above the Waters, and no more heard complaining of her coarse and homely usage from those Children that were brought up under her Wings and Government, And that this may prevail with the Gentry of the Kingdom to leave off any course of Life, whereby this Church is prejudiced, I will end this Head with this bold Assertion; That so far as they have any hand, either by their vicious Examples, or any other way, to the pulling down of this Church; so far they lend their assistance to the ruin of their Posterity; especially if their children prove but honest, and conscientiously obedient to the established Laws. And if any man will offer to gainsay me in this Particular, I will only refer him to the account of the Compositions and Sequestrations which the Loyal Gentry of the Kingdom were forced to submit unto, and the irrecoverable Entanglements of their Estates thereby, after the sinking of the Royal Cause by the late Wars: and if that will not convince him, I will trouble myself with no other Methods of satisfaction, but leave him as a Person pertinaciously resolved against the clearest Evidence.  
2. These men that are entrusted with Places of Authority are false Friends to the Church, by neglecting the just Execution of those Laws that by the Wisdom of the Nation are framed on purpose to keep up the Honour and preserve the Safety of the Church. For if there was a Reason for enacting those Laws, and they were designed to fence the Church and to keep it from the rude assaults of every pragmatical and conceited Person, who will be pleased with nothing but what is shaped and fashioned according to some raw Fancy of his own; why, then I think they ought not to be laid aside, as Almanacs out of Date.  
And if there be no such thing as a Reason for them, why then, in God's Name, let them be repealed; though I think 'tis a sign of a very bold and busy Spirit to declare them so, before the wise Sages, who upon great advice did make them, adjudge them so, and signify their Opinion to us by as solemn and plain a Declaration as the Act itself was by which these things were commanded. For if Laws and Constitutions, which were made for the Good of the Body Politic, must submit to every private Man's shallow Understanding, and the Obligation of them cease or take place according to their Opinion of them, Government will quickly lose its force, and Princes will be in a worse Condition, and have less Authority than Masters of the smallest Families. And from disputes and Questions about the Rights of Princes, in ordering Church affairs, they will proceed to judge of those Laws, that are made either for the Preservation of their Persons, or supplying their necessary Charges with Revenues suitable to that state such a Trust does call for. And though that the Execution of these Laws seems very grievous and full of cruelty to many men, especially to those who are settled in their Commands over the Separating Bands; yet when I consider, that either it must be so, (provided the Laws continue as they are) or else that a whole order and Body of men must be destroyed, and brought under the Power of those, whose Mercies we know by sad experience are Cruelties, and who by a misguided Zeal, fancy they do God good service, in stripping us of all the Laws give us a Right unto. I would appeal to any man, whether the whole should suffer, out of a womanish pity to a few, and solid Constitutions truckle to groundless Passions and resolute discontents? I am sure, according to those Observations I have made, I have always found that wise Governors in all Ages have made private Conveniencies or Advantages, submit and lie prostrate before a public good: And accordingly we find, the Late King, that incomparable Person, in his Letter of Advice to his present Majesty, gives his sense of this, in these words; That he could not yet learn that Lesson, nor he hoped ever would his Son, That it is safe for a King to gratify any Faction with the perturbation of the Laws, in which is wrapped up the public Interest and the Good of the Community. And therefore it being so, I would desire the Subordinate Magistrates of the Kingdom, (for to these only I make this Address) with whom his Majesty hath entrusted the Execution of his Laws, to consider whether they do not give away the Safety, as well as the Reputation of the Church, by suffering men before their doors, as it were, openly and with all the seeming Circumstances of a defying Confidence, to break the Laws and violate these sacred Constitutions. And though I know what some men put in by way of answer to all this, yet when men can find out a Plea for Perjury, I will return upon them, and not till then; only I dare assure them that it would be better for such men to decline the Public Service, than to take an Oath to do it, and yet neglect it: And though I have said more now upon this Head, than I know many will con me thanks for, yet let me conclude with this Protestation; That I have not argued this out of any desire of other men's suffering, either in their Liberties or Estates; for I thank God, my Natural Temper, as well as my Religion, obliges me to greater Moderation; and it is not particular men I advise this against, but mad Factions and embodied Numbers, whose Principles stand in a direct opposition to the present Settlement of the Church; and the grand Reason, why I conceive Laws ought to be executed, is from a full satisfaction I have, That no Kingdom can live in Peace and Honour, where solemn Acts, made for the regulating men's Lives, and restraining their violent passions, give way to private and more particular Interests. And if all our several Adversaries would not say the same, were any of the Governments and Disciplines they are so fond of, as well established as ours is, I will be their Bondsman. And therefore I hope no man will impeach me upon this account, of a bitter and persecuting Spirit.  
2. As this our Church loses its Reputation and Esteem, by false Friends, considered in a Civil and Political sense; so it loses very much, and I wish there were no cause to say it, by false Friends, considered as persons dedicated to an Holy Office, and sworn to do her faithful service; the Idleness of some, and the Viciousness of others, who wear the outward Robes of Innocency, have opened as many, nay more mouths against our Church, than any thing else I know. Had not our Enemies stood upon this place of defence, and made it their chiefest Sanctuary, we had muzzled Faction long ago, and seditious principles had been quite beat out of Countenance; we had chased Separation into its proper Den, and sent it back to inhabit those lower Regions, where it was first invented. For when all Arguments have failed our Adversaries, and we have silenced all their unreasonable Clamours, why yet an Arrow fetched out of this Quiver hath shot us through and through; and we must never hope to see the Church ascendant, till we recollect ourselves, and return, in some good degree, to the Innocence of Primitive Christianity. Let but Gravity and Prudence attend us in the Streets, and in our ordinary Converse; let but Diligence, and a well-proportioned Zeal await us in the Desk and pulpit; let us fight our Enemies with their own weapons, and be as often preaching Conformity and Obedience to wholesome Laws, as they are stirring up their hearers to dissatisfactions and discontents; and then I am sure we shall not need many more Laws to reduce the Generality of the people to a Submission. I will not meddle with the Right or the Religion of Preaching often; yet this I will dare to say, Considering our present Circumstances 'tis very politic and would prevent much of that Faction, which otherways will necessarily grow and enlarge itself. And upon this account I would hearty desire those men, who are not satisfied in the public Convenience of it themselves, not to laugh at and deride those who do it; for I am certain this hath contributed to the Church's loss, and hath put an Argument into our Adversaries hands, that hath not wanted its force and power amongst the giddy multitude. Well therefore, if we have any desire to see the Prosperity of this Church; if we have any hearty good wishes for the unalterable Settlement of it, pray let us be diligent in our Calling; for Diligence makes the Church rich both in Members and in Graces too. Let us not grudge any pains, whereby we may draw people into that Fold Christ himself does keep, and bring them into those direct ways and paths that lead to Eternal Life.  
But there is another false Friend amongst the Clergy too, and that is he that inveighs privately against what publicly he hath sworn to, and in his Visits sighs and mourns for those Impositions, which under his own hand, he hath declared his full satisfaction in. This is the Man indeed that nurse's Faction, and strengthens the Common People in the belief of their wrong and ungrounded persuasions of the Discipline of the Church; and truly is fit for nothing else but to be given up to the utmost Justice and Rigour of the Law, and to be dealt withal as a perjured person; for what hold can be taken of such a person, and what security can he give of his good Behaviour, whom Oaths and voluntary Subscriptions will not oblige and tie? This Man ought to be looked upon as an Enemy in our own Quarters, standing ready upon every Siege, to open the Gates and to break down the Walls in order to the entrance of our Enemies upon us; and if such Fellows as these be not taught better Manners and more Honesty, why, we must expect a return of our former Gonfusions upon us again. For here it was they begun before, and most of those that cursed Meroz, and invited the Common People to help the Lord against the Mighty, were persons whose several Hands, to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church, might have been found, in those several Bishop's Offices, from whom they received those Instruments whereby they were empowered to exercise their Public Ministry. And alas! that which shows there is much of the same Spirit amongst these men still, and that the Interest of Morality and Honesty must be waved, when their Game is to be played, is this, that there is scarce any man in Public and Legal Employment, can have a good word, or be represented under any fair character by the Brethren of the Separation, but such false Loons as these are: these must be cried up as having something of the Power of Godliness; (for to allow as much as themselves pretend to, would spoil the market;) these must be vogued by them as men having some tolerable acquaintance with the gracious Influences of God's Spirit, and as men whose Hearts are good, let their outward Practices be what they will: and if advice be asked, what public Ministers are fittest to be heard? why, if they will allow it Lawful to hear any (for, I promise you, at this time, as the price of things go, it is a very great favour) be sure they be sent to these men's Churches. But, Good God that men should be so notoriously wicked on both sides; the one to entertain a good opinion of and look upon the other as a Saint purely for his Knavery and Dishonesty; and the other that he should believe himself the better Christian, because he plays tricks with Government, and solemnly swears to that, which privately he complains of as his greatest burden, and makes ridiculous reflections upon: certainly if any thing be an Argument of a wasted Mind and spoiled Conscience, it is this.  
And thus having given an account of those main Engines whereby the Honour and Safety of this excellent Church is battered down, I thought to have consulted the Readers as well as mine own ease, and to have gone no further. But upon fresh and second thoughts, I find other things whereby our Church suffers an Eclipse, which though not so obvious to every view as the others, yet I am certain very pernicious, and in their way very much conducing to the Church's Ruin, and to the increasing of those thick Clouds, that are now so fast gathering about us; and which, if not laid aside by those who have hitherto been the evil Instruments to make use of them, will in time lay waste this Garden, though never so well enclosed: Give me leave to name them.  
First, This Church suffers by men's misconstruing of Judgements and making every Calamity and Desolation that befalls the Kingdom, to be the Effect of God's anger for the Church's encroachments upon the Rights of Christ, whose Sceptre they would persuade the World is by us taken out of his hands, and given to the Civil Magistrate, who hath no share nor portion in it. And this is a mighty prevailing thing amongst the Vulgar, whose sense of Secular losses, such as they have a present feeling of, is very great, and must needs influence them accordingly. What can provoke such people more than a persuasion, that upon such and such accounts their endeared Children are swept away by a spreading and contagious Plague; or that the Scarcity of Corn which is their every day necessary Food, proceeds from God's displeasure against Bishops and other Clergymen, for keeping Christ out of his Government and Kingdom; and that those several Fires which tear down their Houses, and give so great affrightments, are purely kindled upon the score that God's people (by whom they mean themselves) are punished, for not yielding to Romish and Superstitions Impositions? Certainly such suggestions as these, to people who are hugely governed by Sense, and take their measures of things by Success and Prosperity, must needs stir up all the Passions that are within them, and confirm in them the greatest prejudice and displeasure against a Government from which so much evil hath been derived, both to men's Persons and Estates. And further, their impatient longing after a full enjoyment of all those things that contribute to their worldly Happiness, must needs put them upon all violent means to throw down that Interest, which destroys so much at present, and set up the other whereby they are invited to believe all happiness and outward welfare would attend them; especially if you do but add to those things a Description of a glorious State of spiritual things, wherein they shall have a share of Government, and not be at this rate always under Guardianship and Subjection, ridden by Priests and other Antichristian Officers: Oh! such an Expectation makes their Blood boil within them, and to promote these excellent things they care not what wrong they do either to Church-mens Reputation or Revenues, nor what Method they make use of to weaken the Forces of such a Babylonish Crew, who would stand betwixt them and the splendid Manifestation of Christ's Power and Kingdom. And if any man object and say, I am uncharitable in fixing such an Imputation upon the Adversaries of the Church, I answer again, 'tis no breach of charity to charge men with Truth, and to let the World know, by what base and sinister means they lessen the deserved Honour of our Church, nay, 'tis a piece of Charity and Justice to ourselves. And that I have not charged them falsely I refer any man to those Interpretations they made of the last great Plague and never-to-be-forgotten Fire, in which though many of these men wanted not their share, as to loss and damage, yet Good men! such was their Innocency, they had no hand in the provocation: though one would have thought, had the Fire been purely to vindicate their cause, the Angel of the Lord should have marked their Houses, as he did the Israelites in Egypt, and commanded those furious Flames to have passed them over, and spent their rage upon theirs alone, who were professed Sons of the Church of England. And let them say what they please by way of excuse for themselves, yet this is their course still; and though Judgements are sent as tokens of Divine displeasure against all those breaches of Gods righteous Laws, all those open and boldfaced Impieties, all those Enormities that are usual amongst any Party or Division of Men whatsoever, though we all come short of the Glory of God, and every man from the highest to the lowest, by some miscarriage or other helps to kindle the fire in the Divine Breast, yet this Church of England, this cruel Stepmother, who tears out of God's children's hands the pure Bread that falls down from Heaven, and would put them off with empty Husks; these proud and domineering Clergymen who live in ease and idleness, why, for the sake of these does God suffer the Air to be infected, the Earth to be dry and barren, and the Heavens to be as Brass over our heads. Oh! were but Antichrist once destroyed, and all the appendent Limbs thereof, and Christ's own Ordinances and pure Institutions set up in the World, what a new face of things would be presently! then would our Floors be full of wheat, and our Fats should overflow with Wine and Oil; then the Saints should meet with joy, and sing their songs upon Sigi●n●th; yea, then would God's people execute vengeance upon the Heathen and punishment upon the People, and bind their Kings in chains, and their Nobles in fetters of iron. And oh, how does this good news tickle the vulgar sort of people, and how pleased are they in their fanciful Reflections upon what brave Times will be, and what brave things they will do, when they come to have a share in the Powers of the Earth, and put hooks into the Nostrils of the great Leviathans, the Temporal and the Spiritual Tyrants, that have eaten up God's people, as they eat Bread! And that these good things may be accomplished, and they may leave the blessing of them to their Posterity; why, good men, many of them care not by what Spoils and Rapines, by what Untruths and Falsehoods they slur the Credit, and ruin the Reputation of such a Church, as is the great bar to these happy Enjoyments. And because this is so common a thing among all Sectaries whatever, and they have so partial a kindness for themselves, as to sweep their own doors, and lay the loads upon other men's shoulders; give me leave to make an useful Digression, and show the Vanity and Irreligion of such do, by proposing to these men a few Questions.  
1. Whether they do not, by particularising the Reason of God's Judgements, pretend to a Knowledge, which they cannot, according to God's ordinary Methods of proceeding with the World, at this time attain unto? For that Miracles, since the Settlement of the Gospel-Dispensation in those places where its Profession is become National are ceased, I think is passed all doubt; and that God now deals with men's Reason and Understanding, and offers them the Evidence of former Miracles in conjunction with other Arguments in order to their Conviction of the Truth of what he hath delivered, is past all scruple: and further, that no Man that pretends to have a further Revelation than what is made in Scripture, is to be believed, unless either I have a Revelation signifying that his Revelation is true, or else he bring his Letters credential along with him, and by Workings above the power of Nature, such as Christ, and his Apostles and their Successors for some continuance of time had, prove his Mission, I think is beyond all controversy. So that then these men, who, that they may the better heat the Common People against us, pretend themselves Gods Familiars, and privy Counsellors, and by virtue of their Intimacy with him boldly lay Judgements at the doors of other men, by what way shall we know they are right in their Interpretation, and that God grew very angry with this Nation, as soon as Episcopacy was restored, and the Lands of the Church returned into the possession of the right owners again; and that the Plague and the Fire were sent purely to vindicate their cause, and to express God's indignation against that cruel and hard usage they met withal? Can they satisfy us in the truth of this by Raising the Dead, or else speaking those, as St. Peter did, who this moment are in a complete state of Health, into death immediately: (God forbidden they should be invested with such a power, for I believe we should have but very few Bishops left alive amongst us then.) Can they alter the Course of Nature, and change the essential Property of any thing, and do great cures even by opposite and contrary Means, as our Saviour did? No, alas! when we make a just enquiry into their abilities, we find the men, maugre all their boastings, are but like unto us, and all this confidence in particularising the Grounds and Reasons of God's Judgements, is founded in pride and Self-conceit in an overweening value they have for themselves, and an implacable hatred they have entertained against the Church of England. And though the Principles of Separation have been the Instruments of as dreadful Effects to this Nation, and wrought as great Confusions as History almost can parallel; yet so vain are many of these Men, that there cannot be a Storm or a Tempest, that there cannot happen the least Ruffle or Disorder upon Nature, but presently it is to give intimation of the wrongs and oppressions they are under, and to warn both the King and Bishops to treat them more gently for the time to come. And by this means the easy people are emboldened to very vile thoughts of the Government, and to any mischievous undertaking that tends to its Ruin; for who would not willingly be rid of a Constitution or of a Number of such Men as are so great eye-fores to God himself, that the very sight of them is continually provoking him to work great Desolations in the earth?  
2. I ask these men, whether we, as obedient Churchmen, have not as much right to make use of this Argument against them, as they against us? truly I think it will be no easy matter to disprove it. Nay considering that earthly Government is a dim and obscure Representation of that excellent Order and Harmony that is in Heaven, and that Magistrates are Gods Vicegerents and his immediate Stewards on Earth, I think that those who live in Obedience to them, upon a satisfaction th● things they command are not unlawful, may pretend to as great, nay greater kindness from God than these men can do, and consequently be better enabled by him to expound Judgements than they are. And now upon this account suppose should tell them, that the Plague and the Fire was for the murdering one King and Banishing the other; was for laying violent hands upon the Ancient and Primitive Order of Episcopacy, and turning the Aged and Reverend Prelates out of their Estates as well as Liberties: suppose further, we should tell them, that the continuance of God's anger is for their adherence still to those Principles, notwithstanding we have in these late years seen issue from them, such horrid Distractions and Animosities, such unnatural Quarrels betwixt Neighbours and Neighbours, nay betwixt some Parents and Children; I say, suppose we should tell them this and much more, why, would they not pronounce us monstrously uncharitable and presuming upon a greater information from Heaven, than we have any warrant to do from Scripture? but why the Pride and Uncharitableness should lie altogether on our side, I profess, I cannot tell, unless they can demonstrate their Right, as I said before, to comment upon all the visible Expressions of God's Anger by working some unquestionable Miracles before our Eyes.  
3. I ask these great pretended Acquaintances of Heaven whether it be not a Sign of great Hypocrisy and unsoundness of Mind, to prevent and hinder the influence of any Argument or Consideration, whereby God designs to lay men's Pride in the dust, and to work them into that state of Humiliation and Self-abasement, which becomes all men in this frail and imperfect State? For certainly 'tis the proper character of a good and an honest Christian, who takes up his Religion upon Gospel-Motives, that he is one that will make use of all Ways and Methods, to work his mind up to such a Temper as God requires from him, and therefore this good Man if at any time God suffer great ruins to overtake the World, why, he knows, he cannot better and more suitably comport himself, than by being humbled under his Anger, than by reflecting upon himself with that severity of mind, that becomes any man, who hath had an hand in such provocations; but now for a Man or a Body of Men to impute these Judgements to others and to shift them from themselves, it is to abate the force of that Argument, that may be fetched from Gods present heavy Dispensations, and as persons unconcerned, to leave all those ways of Humiliation, prescribed in Scripture, to be undertaken and done by others; for as for themselves they can wash their hands, they are pure and clean, than which there cannot be a greater instance of Pride and Vanity of an unsound and a very corrupted Mind. And therefore if by these Questions I can but bring these great opiniators to a persuasion, that God's Judgements are sent forth to punish and terrify men of all Opinions and Judgements whatsoever from a sinful course of Life, and that when he appears with his Sword in his hand, every man ought to smite upon his Breast, and say, What have I done? I think I shall do both Religion, and themselves a very great Right.  
2. This Church suffers very much by the Jealousy of many of the Gentry (especially those who have swallowed down the Principles of Mr. Hobbs) lest the Clergy should overtop them, or at least encroach too much upon their Power, and influence in those Countries where they live. Many of them, I say, for God forbidden I should impeach all or most of them; for certainly there is no spot of Ground in the Christian world where there are better bred Gentlemen, than in this famous Island, who understand respect and kindness to all sorts of Persons, in proportion to those several places and conditions they are fixed in, and who have a particular esteem for the Clergy, both upon the score of the Dignity of their Function, and their just opinion of those Degrees the University for a compensation of those improvements they have made in several Arts and Sciences have deservedly conferred upon them. And I must needs say this further, that I have met with very few Branches of the Ancient Gentry, upon whom Civility and Modesty have been entailed from many preceding Generations, or in my present Neighbourhood, that have not been very punctualand zealous in keeping up the Reputation of the Ministry, both by their own personal carriage to them, and their readiness to secure them from the assaults and rudeness of the untutored Rabble.  
But however we cannot expect but in great flocks there should be some diseased Sheep, and even amongst those who either have, or aught to have had better Education, we must expect to meet with some, who want that Civility and Obligingness of Behaviour, that would very well become their great Revenues, and put a gloss upon their Titles of Honour. And usually the frothy Wit and impertinent Humours of these men are spent upon those, who by virtue of their Commission are the Ambassadors of God, and out of fear lest they should share with these Mighty Huffs in Command and Interest among the common people, why, all ways must be taken to insinuate little opinions of them into the Minds of the Credulous Vulgar. And to this good end now and then they must be invited to this Great Man's Table, and be called at every turn by some name or other, that shall make them cheap in the eyes of Vulgar people, who commonly take their measures of things from the Practice and Example of their Landlords: and that their dependence may be the faster, if their Maintenance be but small, all ways must be stopped, through which they endeavour to obtain a legal and certain enjoyment of a more comfortable and suitable Livelihood: for whilst their Lives are precarious, oh they can put them to the frequent use of their knees, which otherways would grow too stiff; they can keep them at a distance, and make them know what subjection means. Alas! if they come to make their claims by the Countenance of Laws, they will be too proud and saucy, unmannerly and rude, and it may be assume an unaccustomed confidence to reprove these braving Hectors with too smart and severe an Emphasis. Then they will it may be too boldly stand their ground, when they are scornfully reprehended, for their ill drawn Doctrines, or their ill derived inferences; for their busy interrupting his Worship when he had composed himself to a soft and easy slumber: and though in ancient times Emperors and other great men submitted conscientiously in many things to the Power of Spiritual Guides, and took their Correction as well as Advice and Counsel with all cheerfulness, yet now, forsooth, 'tis below a Gentleman to have his frolicks damped by the pragmatical interposal of a busy Priest; this is a piece of slavery to which their Heroic Spirits scorn to submit. And therefore to prevent this Inconvenience, all means must be used to daunt the Spirits of these Worthy persons who are Gods Messengers, and to make them more modest in their addresses to their Greatnesses for the time to come; and if by an idle and contemptible Name, or a scandalous Report they can render these men cheap and little in the Hearts ' and Eyes of their Neighbourhood, they fancy a very great victory and conquest.  
But how unworthy a thing this is, as it is a contempt brought upon men, whose Learning and Education commands from all ingenuous Minds esteem and value, and how pernicious it is in its consequence I leave any man to judge, who understands the necessity of a separated Order of Men, to instruct all sorts of people, and thereby teach them the principles of Obedience, first to God and then to Men, according to their several places in the World, an Order of men without whose Influence and repeated Counsels, I am certain the World would be little better than a Wilderness filled with Inhabitants of no better Natures, nor under any better Discipline than savage Beasts are; whose great employment is to run up and down and rend and devour one another. And I would therefore have this great Swaggerer against the Clergy to consider, that without such an Order of Men, his very Estate would be the parent of his Danger, and his best title to it, would be the length of his Sword and the Number of his Servants; for 'tis our business to teach men upon Principles of Conscience, to keep themselves within their stated bounds, and to be content with any Condition the Providence of God shall allot for them. And if you do but lay aside the Priesthood, and suffer the people to receive no better Notices of things than what they get from these Great men's Examples, or the Documents of their ignorant Neighbours, I will warrant you, Men, though capable of better things, will be like Beasts of prey, and the several Orders of men must submit to the fury of the strongest Party, and the greatness of their Estates will expose them to the greater Envye and the closer conspiracy of other ambitious persons to betray and work them into ruin. And this was wisely foreseen by several wise men in the late confusions; and therefore when the freakish Sectaries started any thing of this Nature in their pretended Parliaments, and offered at a Vote against the public Ministry, as sometimes they did, why, these men stepped in and with all their might and strength opposed it, and with this Argument chief, that without the Conduct and Guidance of such an Order of Men, it was impossible to keep the Nation in any tolerable peace and quietness. And therefore I dare be bold to acquaint these despisers of the Clergy, that 'tis not only their praise to give respect and honour to Persons, whose Functions and Education challenge it, and who have received it from all wise and good Men, time out of mind; but that it is their safety and security, and that the preservation of their Estates in their Families and Successors does much depend upon it. For without Principles of Conscience, which we know are chief derived into the Minds of people, by the Ministers of the Gospel, and the sooner according to the strength of their Reputation amongst the people, I say without Principles of Conscience men can have no other security of their Possessions, than what they enjoy by outward force and strength: and therefore if these men will not esteem us for the sake of our Improvements in Learning, for the sake of those Degrees the Universities have conferred upon us, and which by the Laws of Heraldry, puts us into the Rank and Number of Gentlemen; nor for the sake of our holy Office, whereby we are dedicated to the Service of the Great King of Kings, yet I hope the preservation of their Lands and Revenues will have some influence upon them, and oblige them, if not from Principles of Conscience, yet from Principles of policy, to treat us becoming our Profession, and not deal with us as the Refuse and Scum of the Country, as some idle atheistical, Gentlemen shall I call them? no Br●●●s, have done of late.  
3. This Church suffers very much by erecting Schools for Academic studies as they now call them, and thereby infusing Principles of dislike against the Government into the Youth of the Kingdom. I need not tell the World what a piece of boldness this is, and what an unsuitable return it is to his Majesty for his kindness and condescension to these men; who instead of making a modest use of his Goodness, are forming Factions against him, and instructing Youth in Principles of a quite different Nature, from the Laws and settled constitutions of the Kingdom, are preparing their Posterity to stand it out against their future Governors, as they themselves have done against his present Majesty and his Father, and by this means are entailing miseries and confusions upon the Nation. Alas I at this rate the Church of England will never want its Enemies, and a Generation of Vipers will be at hand upon all occasions to sting her if possible to death; and if this be suffered, and our Governors lie asleep whilst the Enemy thus sows Tares, why, then the Lord have mercy upon us, we cannot sooner or later escape a ruin, and 'tis impossible but either Popery or Enthusiasm, should like a Deluge overflow us, both of which we know make men's Spirits turbulent and unquiet, and aiming at nothing less than the enthroning of themselves, though it be by pulling down with the hands of violence and rudeness any thing that stands in their way. This is a Mine made to blow us up withal, the very thoughts of which is enough to provoke the Patience, and raise the Passions of any man, though mortified in never so considerable a degree. And if the Youth of the Nation must be suffered to suck in with their Mother's Milk the Father's Antipathy against the Church of England, we may premise ourselves if we please Halcyon-days when this generation is wrought off, but alas! we shall find them like the Hydra's Head, one springing up in the room of the other. And though I know these Reflections upon these new Schools will seem very grievous, and that I must incur a very severe Ceusure for it, yet I profess I cannot help it, for my sense of it is so sad, and according to that foresight I have, it seems to me so very ruinous to the future Peace and Quietness of the Nation, that I am afraid the Children unborn will rise up and call them cursed who were the first Promoters and Undertakers of it; and though I would be charitable, yet methinks it looks too like a Design to entail that Revenge they cannot act themselves, upon their Children to act for them in succeeding Times, which is a spirit as directly opposite to the Meekness of an honest Christian, as Light is to Darkness. Oh if some of the old Puritans, who heedlessly vented some of those Principles, from which our present Nonconformity took its Original and Rise, were but alive for some few days, and had a just Relation of their Successors actings, methinks I see with what indignation they would declare against these practices, and how easily they would be persuaded, to quit those Opinions, they now find by sad experience make men so busy and so restless. What! cannot these men be content to break Laws themselves, and be winked at? but they must plant Schools of Sedition and dissatisfaction, in the several parts both of City and Country? Oh, all you that have any regard to Religion, and zeal for the propagating the Graces of the Gospel, in the hearts of men, divulge not this in every company, for 'tis enough to increase that Atheistical Spirit, that is now too rise amongst us, and to force less considering men, whether they will or no, to look upon Religion as a politic Engine, fitted for any Design, men's Lusts and Passions, men's Interest and Advantage shall suggest unto them. To see men deliberately training up Youth in a direct opposition to those Laws, in the preservation of which the safety both of King and Kingdom are concerned, 'tis an unaccountable piece of confidence; to see men expressing no other Resentments of his Majesty's Clemency and Forbearance, than what consists in weakening the hands of Government, and multiplying parties to withstand and fight against its Laws, 'tis an Ingratitude not easily to be paralleled. From this bold Contrivance, we may justly expect, if not timely discouraged, the inevitable Ruin both of Church and State; and therefore from the thing itself, and its miserable Effects, let us all say, Good Lord deliver us.  
4. This excellent Church receives very considerable damage from those idle tales that are carried up and down, against the Reverend Bishops and their Regular Clergy, whereby they are rendered either impious, or ridiculous: A thing which hath been all along used by our Adversaries, although its being so I am sure is not for their credit. And if they can but get any thing by the end whereby the may disparage the prudence, or blot the Temperance and Sobriety of their Minister, why, presently one  fellow or other posts from one company to another, and with all the ridicuculous circumstances in the World, tells his pleasant story. And Oh how do the zealots hug themselves at such an advantage to advance their cause again, and with what seeming pleasure do the tattling Gossips spread this news abroad at the next meeting of the Sisterhood! where the poor priest one while is laughed at, and another while with deep fetched sighs pitied and lamented, as a poor carnal wretch; and where at the same time from him they presume to take their measures of all the rest of the same profession: and every one that is canonical, must presently be arraigned and then condemned as a person wholly ignorant of the Mysteries of the Gospel.  
And that such idle Stories may not want their full advantage, the Members of this Church must at the same time be bewailed as lost men, as persons given over by God to a vile and reprobate sense; otherwise according to the profound judgement of these wise ones, it is impossible they should sit so contentedly under the Ministry of such blind Guides, and submit to such beggarly elements which are so abhorred by all who are acquainted with those new lights that in these latter days have sprung up in the World.  
And though upon the supposal that any of these idle stories are true, yet if the same thing befall any of their own gang, who we know are not without their faults, why, presently shifts and excuses are made, and either God sees no Fault in Israel, or else the Flesh was weak though the Spirit was strong: but for a a member of the Church to fall into any error, is presently an argument of a Reprobate mind, of a soul forsaken by God; and he must not be admitted to any possibility of Reconciliation with Heaven, unless he renounce his former obligations to Authority and Laws, and herd himself amongst these refined and spiritualised persons. And now by this artifice the Church sinks in the esteem of many unwary persons, and they stand ready upon such sinister representations of her Members, to do or say any thing, whereby they may soil her beauty, or eclipse her glory. But is this fair dealing? is it like the Spirit of the Gospel, which thinketh no evil, much less with a tickling pleasure speaketh evil of others? Is this any argument that they are better and more experienced Christians than their Neighbours: Can they upon this account vindicate and challenge to themselves the right of being God's Children? and do they entail their Saintship upon their reviling, and loading with calumny and reproaches those who are their betters, such as are entrusted with public Offices, and therefore not to be accused under two or three Witnesses? If this be their Religion, and one of the evidences of their being the only people of God, truly as yet I must demur, before I wish myself of their Number: for according to my present belief of things, which I think is founded upon the plain declaration of God's mind in Scripture, the clear contrary to these is what the Gospel commands, and that Charity which our Saviour was an example of, I am sure was that which the Apostle acquaints us with, namely such a one as is so far from divulging, and laying open men's infirmities, that it covers a multitude of faults.  
And though I know many of these things are forged, yet upon the admission of them to be true, let these men if they can, prove either from Scripture or from Reason, that it is their duty to uncover their Brother's nakedness, and to render such persons ridiculous, whose very Office in all Ages, hath commanded an esteem and veneration. No, no, this is a sign amongst many other things, that Conscience is not so much concerned in the quarrel as is pretended; for I am sure an honest tender conscience rightly understood, is such a one as is universally disposed to every thing that is made matter of divine command, among which covering, which I said before, another's faults, and restoring a fallen brother in the Spirit of meekness, are plain and obvious. And therefore I must desire those, to whose ears such spiteful tales are brought, to consider that the stories told are either true or false: If they be true, and of an heinous nature, they ought in their retirement to implore God's Grace for such public persons, that they may do so no more, and according to their Interest in them, and acquaintance with them, to caution them against putting such advantages into such uncharitable persons hands for the time to come; and if the stories be false, as thanks be to God many of them are, though told with all the degrees of boldness, they ought to vindicate their aspersed brother and give such rebukes to this busy whisperer as the nature of the crime calls for. But whether they be true or false, I will say, unless the fact alleged be very notorious indeed, that he is as great a transgressor who with so great a delight and forwardness divulges it abroad, as the other is in committing of it. And if this thing be but considered in its Principle and in its End and Design, we shall find, such aggravations in it, as will easily induce us to believe this man, to be never the better Saint for his departure from the Church of England. For I do say this course is impious and diabolical, a direct imitation of him who in Scripture is called the Accuser of the Brethren; And let these men glory in their acquaintance with God and Christ as loudly as they please, yet I am sure this spirit is from the Devil, and shall never find an entertainment and acceptance from him who is styled Love itself. And truly though for many Reasons I have but a very ordinary opinion of the late Reformers, which I list not now to repeat, yet I will be so open as to tell the World this is one, to wit their readiness to publish their cursed book of Centuries, and in it to divulge whatsoever they could invent or find for the defamation of the Clergy of the Church of England. An action as fully declarative of an Antichristian spirit, of an Hellish temper as any I have met withal; and until this spirit be banished, we must not allow them to be the only Saints, but we must believe that the Gospel Spirit lodges more amongst us of the Church, than amongst them notwithstanding their vain and confident boasting.  
5. The Church of England suffers very much by Simoniacal Contracts, by entering upon pastoral charges indirectly, and leaping into preferments over those gates and walls, which the Church hath raised on purpose, that none might enter upon her sacred employments, and encouragements, but with Consciences as clear as the Sun at Noon. And amongst many other these two things upon this account contribute towards the Church's loss.  
First, as thereby the Conscience of the Minister is debauched, and he thereby made very unfit to give those Instructions, and wholesome counsels to his people, that otherwise he might do. For all wilful sins, especially such a notorious one as Perjury, hardens a man's mind, and divests him, till repent of, of all the necessary and useful influences and assistances of Gods good spirit, and withal makes him careless, as of his own so of the Souls of others; and a man so easily ensnared by such a sin is easily induced by any temptation to a neglect of those duties which his office calls for, and a remiss performance of those Ordinances, which were designed and commanded on purpose to reform and instruct the people. And where a Minister of the Gospel is idle and careless in the execution of his duty, there the common people either run into divisions, and opposite parties to him, or else grow rude and heathenish, both which are very mischievous to the Church.  
2. The Church is injured by that contempt that such a thing brings upon their Teacher amongst the common people; for though these contracts may be kept from legal proof, yet there are usually such circumstances in them, as make them shrewdly suspected, which I could name, if it was convenient. And pray how can such a man live in any regard and credit, who is believed to get a title to his living by creeping through the back door of perjury? Certainly the belief of this, must bar up the way, through which wholesome documents and true information of necessary things should be conveyed into the people's minds; and this is enough to ruin not only the reputation but the labours of any such man whatsoever. And 'tis not possible for him to govern with that authority, and to those good purposes he might do, who is believed a person of no principles nor Conscience, but will swallow down any thing, and voluntarily incur the censure of the most perfidious wretch, rather than lose any considerable advantage from the World.  
And therefore I do hearty beg of the Lay Patrons (for thanks be to God in this particular we have no reason to complain of the Bishops and the other Clergy, as to those shares of Church preferment that are in their disposal) I say I must beg the Lay Patrons to consider seriously that that excellent Church in which their happiness and safety is involved, suffers by their private gain, and that they set their own advantage against that of the Church their Mother, and that they do betray the Souls of those, to whom they send men of such corrupted principles and forfeited minds as these are. And further I entreat them to consider, that when they come to take a view of what they have done, they will find the money they received is the price of blood, and that they sell those for whom Christ died, and must be accountable at the Last day, not only for their own Sin, but for that very Sin of Perjury the vicious Priest is guilty of; for he that invites a man to a sin, is reckoned as if he had committed the sin himself.  
And further I offer to these men's considerations that unspeakable discouragement, which by so doing they give to learning, and those worthy improvements which render men really and indeed useful to the Church, and the Interest of immortal Souls, when Dunces who have more Money than Honesty or Learning, shall climb into the best Preferments, and men of Parts, and Principles, who by pains and study have run through and well digested all necessary Arts and Sciences, must be forced to sit down contented, with allowances every way disproportioned to, and below their manifest deserts and worth.  
And if there be not some further remedy found out against this distemper, we may well expect in a short time, to see the Church in a more forlorn and despicable condition than now it is, which God of his goodness prevent. For I cannot forbear reasserting this, that the Church and State are so necessarily helpful to one another, that they will live and die together.  
6. This Church receives no small injury from the careless and remiss attendance of many of her professed admirers, upon her public Devotions and Instructions. And though I do not think that Religion lays any obligation upon her Children to hear a Sermon every day of the week, nor to esteem that time lost and vainly spent in which we are not upon our knees in prayer; yet this I am sure of, that we are obliged to attend, if not reasonably prevented, upon all those Ordinances, which the Church hath enjoined us; and to omit them, is to violate our obligations to that Authority, to which we have vowed and professed subjection.  
And if we consider well, we shall find that not only the necessity of our Souls (which by often and dutiful approaches to God in public prayer, are preserved in a warm and vigorous sense of God, and so consequently made more fearful of running into any course whereby he is offended,) requires this at our hands; but the being useful to others by our good examples, especially if we be men of power and authority; for Examples with the common people are more prevalent, usually, than Arguments and Demonstrations. And therefore he that either out of a vain notion, that one Sermon a day is more than he can practise, or from a lazy and slothful temper, which too many are guilty of, or because it is the best time he can spare from his other business, to indulge himself and his Neighbours in excessive and intemperate drinking, neglects not only the preaching but the public prayers of the Church which he is bound to be present at Evening as well as Morning, why, I must tell him that he is an enemy to that Church of which he is a member, and puts an argument into her Adversaries mouth, whereby he renders her contemptible.  
And is it not a shame, tell me you who are the persons guilty of this crime I am now accusing, to see men more zealous in breaking than you are in preserving the reputation of public Laws? and to behold Faction more eagerly supported and upheld than Loyalty and obedience? And therefore I do in the name and behalf of the Church your Mother, beg and entreat you all to render her and her public Devotions more venerable in the eyes of the common people, by your constant waiting upon all her Offices, upon all those public Ministeries, wherein she dispenses wholesome food to all her Children; for this will evidence that which many people are unwilling to believe, to wit, that Essential Righteousness and Goodness are as visible and conspicuous in the Members of our Church as in any other, and that if her Counsels be but followed, there are none that make nearer approaches to the Zeal and fervour, to the Innocence and simplicity of the Primitive Christians, than the Sons of the Church of England do.  
7. This Church's honour and due regard is lessened by a perfunctory and careless consideration of the confusions and disorders, that followed her dissolution by the pretended power of a Parliament. For he that truly weighs what monstrous Opinions presently broke in upon us, such as were destructive of all our Civil as well as Religious Rights and Liberty; he that reflects upon the impudence and boldness, wherewith every private fancy was vented and spread abroad, and how servants became our Masters, and the Meanest of the people presumed to handle sacred things: further, he that considers the blood was spilt and the treasure was exhausted, and all this for a thing they could never agree what it was; why, certainly he cannot but maintain a value and just esteem for a Church, which by her Doctrines and Canons puts every thing into its proper place, and settles every person in his own office, and prescribes him duties suitable to the sphere in which he moves, giving a just power to Magistrates to enact, and punishing Subjects for any wilful disobedience to those Laws so enacted; enjoining the Pastor of every flock to teach the people all necessary duties, and commanding the people to such a submission to those. Instructions, as is neither prejudicial to their Judgement of discretion, nor yet allows them pragmatically to scorn and censure whatsoever pleases not their own itching ears and overcurious palates.  
And therefore let me here advise all men who are not perniciously resolved, to take notice well of this one thing, and I am confident it will go very far toward their cure. Let them consider the violence after this Church was down, offered to men's Estates for their conscientious adherence to their Prince, the taking away the Lives of many of the good Subjects of the Kingdom purely for not siding with them against the known Fundamental Laws, the divesting of many of the Nobility of their birthright, because they pursued his Interest from whom their Titles of Honour were immediately derived: Let them consider further the strange Maxims of Policy by which they acted, after the taking down the Church's Fences, and every man's doing what was good in his own eyes, let them consider the horrid and intolerable abuses put upon the Providence of God, and at last the murder of the best of Kings; and I will warrant them, if they be cool and in their proper senses, and not sworn to the Interest of a Faction, they will keep alive in their breasts a greater veneration for the Church of England than they had before. And though I am sorry we have any occasion to mention these things, and rub up these old sores, yet so long as men stand ready with their former principles and prejudices to act over the same part again, I think every honest man ought to let the unwary Vulgar know, what was the effect of these men's former undertake, that so they may be armed against all temptations thereunto for the time to come, if ever opportunity, which God forbidden, should serve them.  
8. The Church of England receives very considerable prejudice by misinterpreting and misapplying of several Texts of Scripture, which are forcibly pressed contrary to their very grammatical sense, to serve the ends and designs of her Adversaries, and to draw off the common people from any good opinion of her. The common people, I say, whose size of understanding is so little, as to live wholly upon other men's Judgements, and to believe what these busy Encroachers upon the Rights of Government say, without any serious reflections or considerations at all: and such sort of people making up the greatest body, and upon that account being most useful for any wicked enterprise when opportunity shall serve, they are those whom these men principally court, and whom they make proud by insinuating into them a belief of their excellency above all the rest of the World, and the peculiar esteem God hath had for them from all eternity, without any consideration of their good or evil deeds.  
And if any man shall urge me with a false accusation in this particular, I only refer him to the several printed Sermons of these men in the Long Parliaments time; and if he do not there find very wretched and dishonest perverting of Scripture in this particular, I will acknowledge myself deserving the severest punishment so great a scandal calls for. I list not to bring men's names upon the stage, though I could swell this Treatise by such quotations if I pleased. Only I will ask these men what agreement there is, betwixt Egypt with her garlic and onions, and the Church of England and her Ceremonies? For my part I can find none, and I suppose all wise men are of my mind; and therefore there can be nothing else designed by this comparison, but an ugly insinuation into the Vulgar people, that our King and Bishops are as great enemies to God's people, as Pharaoh was to the Seed of Abraham; and that the Laws made for the preservation and honour of our Church, are as great burdens, as those the Israelites underwent by the cruelty of the Egyptian taskmasters.  
Further I would fain know, what affinity there is betwixt us and that Babylon that is made mention of in the Revelations, and threatened with so great a ruin? Yet Babylon being a word used to a very bad sense, and to represent such a great Degeneracy, why presently this poor innocent Church that imposes nothing upon the minds of men either in point of Belief or Practice but what is admirably serviceable to the ends and designs of Religion, she must hand over head be called Babylon, and upon this score the common people must be taught to run away from her, because she is under that denomination the Mother of Harlots, though many of those that upon such suggestions have forsaken her Discipline and Government, God knows have run themselves out of breath, and have settled no where, till they have sunk either into Atheism or Popery.  
Further, when the Separatists invite the ignorant rabble to increase their Numbers in order to affright Governors from interrupting them in their Spiritual enjoyments, as they call them, by such places of Scripture as that 2 Corinthians 6.17. Come out from among them, and be you separate, touch no unclean thing, are they not very unworthy, or else very ignorant in the application of it to our Church? for upon a true consideration, that place refers to nothing but the Idolatry of the Heathens, and hath no Argument in it, if they cannot prove us as truly Idolatrous as the Heathens were; until the doing of which they ought, by all the obligations of honesty, to let our people live peaceably and quietly amongst us, serving God according to the appointments and Institutions of our Church: and if they will but give us rest and peace so long, we need not fear their vying Numbers with us.  
Again, when they engage the credulous Multitude to withdraw from our public Devotions, by citing that place of the Apostle, 2 Colos. 20, 21. Touch not, taste not, handle not. which refers (upon an impartial enquiry into the Apostles meaning) so certain Impositions, such as abstaining from Marriage, and some sorts of meats as utterly unlawful, which were not so, and so became real encroachments and usurpations upon the Christian liberty, why, though this strikes at the Church of Rome, which imposes upon the minds of men things as absolutely necessary, which have no such necessity, neither in their own nature, nor by virtue of any command from God, yet it reaches not at all any legal injunction of our Church, which is recommended as indifferent, and declared not to change its nature by being commanded by Authority, and that it is alterable when it seems good to the same Authority, which is all we say of our Ceremonies.  
And now so long as the people by such slight artifices as these, are to be deceived, and that there are certain busy and needy persons, who make a trade of imposing thus upon them, so long we cannot expect to keep our Church in a flourishing state. And to speak my mind freely, when I take notice of the education of the greatest part of men, and their natural jealousy of their superiors, I rather wonder, considering all things, that we have so many continue in our Communion still. Though I hope a time will come when the people will be better informed and warned against such evil designers, as too many of these men are. And these reflections necessarily inform me of another head under which I may bring the present misery of our Church, and that is.  
9 The credulity and easiness of the common people to take in whatsoever is suggested to them, by men pretetending more than ordinary sanctity and holiness. Alas their Judgements being but weak and crazy, and their improvements very small (for which they stand engaged chief to a careless education) and their affections being the chief Ringleaders of them into Belief as well as Action, why let but a crafty fellow come, and utter himself with a loud and Stentor-like voice, let him open his throat till he be hoarse again and make several sorts of faces, let him but pretend a more than ordinary pity and compassion for their Souls, telling them God hath sent him on purpose to rescue them out of the jaws of misery and destruction, and alas let it be what it will he utters, though never so nonsensical and rude, though never so heretical and blasphemous, yet it is swallowed down as glib as a gilded pill, and the subtle designer is taken into their Houses as an Angel newly dropped down from Heaven; And Oh whas running and riding to hear this excellent and inspired person, and with what power and demonstration of the Spirit does he preach! And the easy Multitude presently enrol themselves in God's eternal Register, and cry up themselves as his elect and peculiar Vessels, because God hath taken such care of them, as to send so powerful a Messenger amongst them.  
And though I could produce sufficient evidence of the truth of this from the Histories and Accounts of the late bad times, yet I will be sparing; and only for the confirmation of what I have here asserted, refer the Reader to the story of Mrs. Hutchinson in New England.  
We know very well that the people that first went over thither, were such as had notoriously forsaken the Church of England, and were therefore amongst one another cried up as the most Godly and tender conscienced people in the world, such as longed after nothing more than to bathe themselves in the pure streams, and to breath in the clear air of Gospel Ordinances; people, who were inwardly acquainted with Gods will, being his secret and hidden ones, and manifesting themselves so by exposing their lives and fortunes in crossing the Seas, and taking up their habitations in an howling desert, and all this out of principles of Conscience, and an earnest desire to worship God according to the pattern in the Mount.  
And yet these very people, who if you will believe the brags they made of themselves, had an Unction from the holy one, and were thereby impowered to know all things, who were cried up as wise sober and well-grounded Christians, why no sooner did they hear the charming voice of this bold and daring woman, (though the things delivered by her had by their own confession the whole current of Scripture against them) but they presently cried her up as one raised up of God for some great work; and amongst many other things, the calling of the Jews was at hand, and she was to be the Instrument of it. And as the story says, (writ by themselves,) she had more resort to her for counsel and clearing up men's spiritual estates, than any Minister, nay than all the Elders in the Country.  
And if this be not a sufficient evidence of the easiness and weakness of the common people, I cannot tell what is. And how far such people are to be trusted with liberty to hear any Deceiver that sets up for a Guide and Director of the people, I leave the Governors of the Kingdom, whose concernments are of greater weight and moment than mine own, to judge. Only this I will assert, that had the Common people been wiser, or the Deceivers of them fewer, I am sure the Church had been in a better state than now it is.  
10. Again, the stiffness of the common people, and their pertinacious adherence to whatsoever they have heedlessly sucked in against the present Government under which they live, is another ground of our Church's decay.  
For let these men be but once prejudiced against any thing upon the least account, and they become next to unalterable, and it must be a great deal of time and a considerable addition of knowledge and understanding that can bring them off. This is obvious to every observing man whatsoever. And therefore we ought to take especial care, that nothing be insinuated into them, but what is wholesome and savoury, but what tends to peace and quietness, and to the preservation of those several societies they help to make up; for you may as soon hope to remove a Mountain, as to bring such people, whose Reason is subjected to the Impressions of passion and fancy, to a right understanding and a modest and hearty retractation of their formerly imbibed errors. For though they can give no tolerable account of the grounds of their Opinions, yet they have learned confidence enough to laugh at and despise all that can be offered for the conviction of their judgements; and they will be in the Right, though all the rest of the World, and many of those much wiser than themselves, be in the wrong. And though they cannot argue, yet they are taught to throw dirt in the face of him that attempts their reduction, and to load him with all those Names, by which both Idols and Idolaters are called and represented in Holy Scripture.  
And therefore upon this very consideration, I hearty recommend it, both to Parents and Masters, that they keep their Children, and their Servants from resorting to such places, where they are in danger of having their Judgements thus poisoned and infected, for they cannot imagine the great trouble that may redound from thence, as well to themselves as to their Governors: for assuredly there is nothing makes men more proud and insolent, more busy and headstrong, more obstinate and stubborn, than Principles of Schism and Separation; and if any man shall judge me harsh and censorious for saying so, I dare undertake to give such plain and late Instances of the truth of what I have said, as I am certain will convince any person, who does not resolvedly shut his eyes against the Light.  
11. We may further lay this present ill success of our Church at the door of those Atheistical principles that have spread so far and near in the Kingdom.  
For the Church being made up of a number of persons linked together in the belief of such and such Articles of Faith, and in Covenant and promise to worship God according to his will and pleasure, why it is impossible when that which is the Foundation of all this is taken away, but the superstructure should fall immediately. And further, the Censures of this Church being designed to punish men in this world, in order to free them from the plagues of another, why alas these Censures must needs be mocked at by those who have got up to the belief, that there is no such thing at all as another world. And that a man must by necessary consequence believe, if he think there is no God; for these great Fundamentals stand and fall together. And upon this score where Atheism hath got any interest or credit, you will find no men more lose to Government, more severe in their reflections upon the Canons and Constitutions of the Church, and who indeed make nothing else but a laughter at the whole Systeme of Religion.  
And therefore Atheism and its principles being so vastly pernicious to all Churches whatsoever, it will not be amiss to inquire into its Original, that so the root from whence these poisonous branches grow may be stubbed up; and I am afraid we shall find many of those persons concerned in the present growth of this bad weed, who would very willingly be looked upon as the chiefest dressers in God's Vineyard.  
1. The Atheism that is at present so rife among us, owes its growth to the changeableness of many men's principles who pretend to more than ordinary Godliness.  
He that measures Religion, (as God knows the greatest part of Mankind do) not by its intrinsic worth, and that full and rational evidence that it brings along with it, nor by its genuine and proper influënces upon the minds of men where it is hearty received, but by the actions of a great number of men in the World, he must needs enter his protest against it, and judge it as an Engine framed and made for nothing else but to serve turns and cheat the World: and upon serious and impartial reflections upon things, we shall find from hence have proceeded many men's odd conceits of this excellent thing called Religion. For casting their eyes abroad, and observing how common a thing it is for men to shift their Principles, when their Interest lies at stake, and those too such men as are in vogue among the people for the most precious Saints, why alas prompted by their lusts and seduced by Satan, they have first questioned whether there be any such thing in reality and truth as Religion yea or no, and then by degrees have laughed at it as the product either of knavery or melancholy. And I wish our Brethren of the separation could wash their hands of the ruin that hath befallen Religion upon this account. 'Tis true, no men more ready to complain of the present degeneracy of the age than they; and so far as those complaints are the effects of sorrow for sin, and not of design to misrepresent the Government, so far they do well and are to be commended: but I do hearty advise them to look from whence this degeneracy proceeds. Was sin so boldfaced, and notorious impieties so confident and open, before these complainants invaded the Church's Rites, and slackened the Reins of Government, by which the heady multitude were kept in some good awe and order? I desire them hearty to read the History of the times from the Reformation to the beginning of the late dreadful War, and to tell me whether from the highest to the lowest there were such numbers of men that scoffed at Religion, and lived in a neglect of all those Offices which are appointed for men to keep an intercourse with Heaven, and a sense of a Divine Being upon their Souls? No, if they will be impartial, they must needs confess that Religion met with better entertainment both in Churches and in Families than now it does.  
And therefore whence must we fetch this strange Apostasy, this horrid contempt of things that were handled with more reverence even among the Heathens, who are only conducted by the glimmering Light of Nature? Why in short, one great Reason of it hath been these men's inconsistency with themselves, and changing their principles upon every change of affairs.  
At first many of them were modest, and a regulation of some things in the Government as it then stood established, was a blessing that would make the Nation happy: but afterwards, when a little success put a greater power into their hands, why then the ancient Government of the Church must be stubbed up both root and branch, and forsooth we must have another Model founded in a Divine Right, and nothing less than Scripture and Apostolical Example must patronise it, and then the Kingdom of God was come down amongst us, and Babylon was fallen, and the Beast smitten through the fifth rib. But alas within a few years, (I had almost said months) many of those who had cried up the new Discipline and Covenant as the pattern in the Mount, as the greatest bulwark against Romish incursions, went away from it, and by the help of a sorry distinction, were found very busy in overthrowing all National Churches, and now nothing must be Gospel Worship, but what was after the Independent cut. And 'tis very well known, what skirmishes there were betwixt the Presbiterians and Independents for their several Platforms, what petitioning on one side for liberty of Conscience, and what on the other against it; with I know not how many Reasons tendered to the High Court of Parliament: and yet after all this no sooner was the King come in, and the Ecclesiastical Laws revived, and many persons formerly unjustly thrown out, restored to their properties and freehold again, but those very men who had with full cry and open mouth pursued the Congregational men, proclaimed them Schismatics, and great enemies to the work of Reformation that was then upon the wheel: I say, those men contrary to their formerly avowed principles, Declarations, Remonstrances and Petitions, Prayers and Preachments, fall in with the same practices, and gather Churches out of Churches. And nothing is more frequent now than to meet with Books dedicated to the Flock of such a man, and to the Congregation over whom such a man is overseer; when God knows, it may be those people that make up the body of these Flocks live in all the quarters and corners of the town and country. Now whether this be adherence to principles, or bespeak a man fixed and well grounded, I leave any man to judge. No no, it looks like a design, and as far as actions can speak it tells the world that 'tis not Religion about which all this stir is made, but Pride and Interest.  
And now pray let us consider what judgement can some men make of Religion, if they have no better conveyance of its worth into them, than such Examples and Instances as these are? Alas it makes them throw dirt in its face, and to cry it down, as a thing not worthy of that care that it hath met withal from several Laws; and they are apt to conclude, that were it grounded in any Reason, or had any Demonstration on its side, certainly men of education and generous breeding would not be so long before they understand it, and after they seem to understand it, so fickle and uncertain in their Notions of it.  
And truly I think this is no small cause of our present Atheism, and I wish with all my heart our Brethren would lay it close to heart; and when they complain of the Iniquities of the times either publicly or privately, amend at the same time that which hath been so great an occasion of it.  
2. Atheism makes room for itself by those unjust and wicked actions committed by men who pretend to more than ordinary sanctity.  
What must some men think of Religion, especially such as have met with a careless education, who have not had their natural notions of Religion strengthened by wholesome documents and good Examples; what, I say, must these men think of Religion, when they behold a violent stickler for the Rights of the Lord Jesus as he pretends, lift up his eyes to heaven, and then thrust his hand into his Neighbour's pocket? when they hear him profess himself ready to deny himself of any thing though never so profitable or pleasurable, provided the cause of God may flourish, and at the same time busy in signing Orders for sequestering other men's Estates, and turning their Wives and Children out of doors, without any consideration of sex or age? when they see him riding from place to place to help to settle Religion, and at the same time plotting how to rob his natural Prince of his throne and life together? Alas such observations as these are enough to turn any heedless man's stomach against Religion, and to beget in him an averseness to all its Laws and Institutions.  
And here lies a great part of the present misery as well as wickedness of our Nation; We had never beheld wickedness stalking in the streets at noon day without a blush, and unnatural villainies committed in the face of the Sun itself, if men had not defaced and wasted the Principles of Religion by such observations and reflections as these are. 'Tis this from whence those drolls and sarcastical reflections upon Scripture have sprung and issued, and upon the score of which our great Lord and Master hath been pierced afresh by blasphemies and profane witticisms upon his Person and his Doctrine. And to give proof of this, let but any man mark, and he shall find, it is not Argument he shall meet withal from these lewd persons, (when they are called to a just account for these gross and scandalous reflections upon things Venerable and Sacred) whereby they defend themselves from the blows that at any time are given them by wise and pious men, but presently references to such and such pretended Saints and Zealots, with a recounting their many good and Godly Deeds they have committed, and presently Religion must be in fault, and answer for all the miscarriages of her pretended Votaries; which though it be not reasonable, yet if it be judged so by these half-witted and licentious men, 'tis all one, and hath the same influence upon them as if it were.  
And I wish with all my heart that this bad effect had been limited to the late bad times; but alas we find it still amongst us, and no sooner does any of these great pretenders break (upon which score I could wish fewer of these Great Bigots were public undertakers) but presently Religion is called to a severe account, and presently our ears are filled with no other noise than such as this: I, I, this it is to be Godly, do not you see? no men more ready to cheat and undermine all sorts of persons, yea their very dear Brethren themselves: I, these are your Saints that are ready to cry Stand off unto their Fellow Christians, and to proclaim them unfit for their communion. Do not you see what they are? by what lose and uncertain principles they are governed? and how under a pretence of a more intimate acquaintance with things that are spiritual, they are wanting to such duties as are moral and eternal, such wherein Religion rightly understood does or aught to consist?  
And in conclusion, the observers of these things from such obvious and apparent Notices, suffer Religion to lose its esteem in their Breasts, and when that is gone, it is no wonder (considering the many spiritual enemies that stand ready to take part with them against it) that they are by degrees wrought into a downright contempt and scorn of it.  
3. Atheism makes its way amongst us in this Age by those unworthy scandals and aspersions that are fastened upon Churchmen, by whom Religion in all Ages hath been chief derived into the minds of men, and upon whose reputation with all sorts of people, depends very much either the enlargement of Religion's Kingdom, or else its confinement to more particular and narrow quarters. And therefore all men who wish it good speed ought to be very tender how they load any person consecrated to such an office with any indignity or reproach whatsoever.  
But however though the Honour of Religion is so much concerned in this, yet we find a company of Men, (I and those too, apt enough to make great boasts of their zeal for God) very willing to pick up any story whereby they may misrepresent and disparage any man obedient to the Laws, and rather than fail, because words cannot spread themselves far enough though spoke to considerable numbers, they will spit their venom from the Press, and expose a whole order of Men to the contempt and scorn of the people, by laying such loads at their doors, as indeed must needs render them odious to any person, that hath any sense of things yet left upon his mind: witness that late Funeral Sermon for a great Doctor by one whose words we know (more is the pity) go far and near amongst too many of those who separate from the Church of England; which if it had not been so handsomely and withal so modestly chastised already, I would 〈◊〉 ●ave bestowed some of that correction upon it, that was its due.  
But now in the mean time when men of any lose inclinations, as God knows the world swarms with them, men who are very willing in compliance with the commands and persuasions of their lusts, to throw off all the restraining Notices of Religion; when these men I say shall meet with such violent passions, with such vehement invectives, with such odious appellations, with such wicked characters and Representations of so great a Number of men, and those too such as have enjoyed all opportunities for improving their minds, and bettering their manners, why how easily may they from hence draw conclusions against Religion, and weaken its Government in their Hearts and Consciences? which we know seconded by some other helps and advantages dispose the Soul for a total rooting up all kindness and affection for it: And when the Devil hath so far prevailed, I am sure he wants not many Leagues to a total conquest of the Man, and to an absolute submission to his jurisdiction; which I think is a sufficient argument of an Atheistical spirit, and that God is not in all the man's thoughts.  
4. Atheism gains ground by the non-execution of those Laws which command the People to wai 〈…〉 〈◊〉 those institutions whereby Religion is in●●●●ed into their minds.  
It is not to be expected, considering the different education of Persons, founded in the different conditions and providential allotments of their parents, but that there must needs be a vast disproportion in their parts and apprehensions; and though some men are trained up with all the care and diligence, by persons of great Prudence as well as Learning, and thereby are enabled to understand their Duties from those Considerations of things, which by virtue of that education they either can or have made; yet others again there are, whose acquaintance with things through a more careless breeding, reaches no further than the bare objects of sense, and whose Judgements are so weak, as to be constantly imposed upon by strong Fancy and headlong Imagination, and therefore understand little but what is forced into them, and comply with few Laws, but what the fear of the penalties of those Laws compel them to.  
They are first taught to follow the ox and the ass that have no understanding, and unless they be affrighted into an attendance upon those Ordinances, where they may have some further knowledge derived into them, they are very willingly contented with that employment still, and their heavy thoughts ascend no higher.  
And therefore to relax those Laws which enjoin these leaden people under a penalty, and such a one of which they are most sensible (to wit that of the purse) is at the same time to give them a commission to live in the neglect of all those public Duties, whereby the natural Notions of Religion are raised into some degree of life, and kept so after they are raised; and pray then what becomes of these people? why they sink into all manner of Brutishness, God is not in their thoughts at all, and to talk to them of any thing that is Religious, is to discourse perfectly out of their ken and knowledge; they savour nothing but what belongs to the Cart and the Blow, and God knows their Children are brought up in the same way, and hear not a word of God nor of their Duties to him, from one year to another, and so are trained up as very Atheists as themselves, and thereby prepared for little else but picking and stealing, for every thing that is vile and wicked.  
And this is a thing upon the score of which I cannot reflect upon the careless and indifferent execution of those Laws that are made purposely for the Church's peace and safety, without some considerable proportions of grief and sorrow. I find the inconvenience of it so sad in the Parish over which God hath set me, that I wonder our Brethren of the separation should desire their liberty at so dear a rate, and inveigh against those, who desire the Laws might take place, and serve the purposes for which they were intended. For if things continue as they have done, and Magistrates for the fake of some few pretending Religion and Conscience, shall suffer so many hundreds in many Parishes to live in a neglect of all public Worship whatsoever, it is an easy matter to foresee what will become of Religion and civil Government together.  
And thus I have given an account of that present, and God knows too bold Atheism that is so common in the Nation; and though I believe from my heart that these forementioned things have been the root from whence it hath sprung, and to which it owes its principal original and rise, yet I wish there be not something amongst us who profess ourselves true friends to the Church's Discipline, that gives further growth and nourishment to this poisonous plant.  
I do therefore earnestly desire my Brethren to consider with themselves, whether they do nothing that contributes to this unhappy alienation of men's Minds from the belief and sense of a Divine Majesty.  
I am not willing to quarrel any man for what he does by the allowance of the Laws; yet I must needs say thus much (and I hope I shall offend no wise man in it) that did our Churchmen reside more in those places, where the Church's provisions for them and their Families are plentiful and encouraging, it would conduce very much to the honour of the Church of which they are Members, and take away one main plea for some men's profaneness and irreligion.  
For as I have said before, the Religion of the Common people depends very much upon the credit and esteem of their Spiritual Guides and Teachers, and wherever that hath sink, Religion hath accordingly been in the wain: and therefore when Churchmen, instead of feeding their people with constant and wholesome Documents, neglect them themselves, or commit them to the charge of such whose neither piety nor learning commend them to their value, why this is a sure way to insinuate little thoughts of their Ministers into them, and they quickly cry them down, as men who mind not them but theirs; who provided they can but grow fat by Temporal accrewments, care not how lean the Souls of their people are. The truth is, I have often heard such severe reflections made against such persons, and those not by discontented schismatics, but by men hearty devoted to the Interest of the Church, and many of those, persons that have, by their Prince's favour, the execution of Laws and public Justice committed to them, that I could not but wish all places, especially those more populous, or more rich than ordinary, in such men's hands as would take care to prevent such scandals for the time to come. For Fanaticism is so routed and baffled a cause, that when we come to persuade any man to return to obedience to our Church, he usually lets fall the old threadbare arguments, upon which Disobedience and Separation at first were founded, and recurs to the carelessness of many of our Preachers, and by this would make the easy World believe, that our Church that countenances such Drones, is not of God. And if I have offended any one by this plain dealing, I do beg their pardon, and I think 'tis nothing but what is my due, because I am certain 'tis nothing but zeal for the Church my Mother that hath forced me to it.  
Again if any thing to the prejudice of God and his Religion as it stands established by Law amongst us, arises from the corruption of those Officers that belong to the Ecclesiastical Courts, if Church Censures, especially that of Excommunication, be bought and sold, and men sit there as in a Common Market, not to punish evil Doers, but to make merchandise, and to enlarge their Fortunes, though it be to the Church's ruin, I hope our Reverend Prelates, the Fathers of this poor despised Church, will use all care and diligence to prevent the destruction both of Religion, and the Church which is threatened by such vile and ungodly practices as these are.  
12. Further we are very much inconvenienced, and our Church receives very considerable disadvantages from the imprudent way of executing Justice, by many of our subordinate Magistrates, upon the offenders of those Laws whereby the Church's Rights and Privileges are secured.  
The common people who usually take their measures of things falsely, and judge them not by their essential properties, or by their necessary habitude and relation to one another, but by the practices of those who pretend a kindness to, and veneration for them, when they see Magistrates, those to whom the sword of Justice is committed, fall into bitter rage, and expressing that rage by unsavoury words, by countenances darting forth nothing but flames and fire-balls, when they hear them rattling forth their horrid oaths, and wishing such curses as carry with them the greatest ruin and desolation as well to soul as body; further, when they observe any of them to make unwary reflections upon Religion in general, by reason of these men's miscarriages in the defence of any thing that looks like a particular limb or member of it why alas these bitter passions, these ill timed and violent words presently beget in these people a great opinion of themselves, and that because such persons are their Judges: and they make no scruple to plead their Cause to be of God, because such ungodly men are so ready to punish them for their defence and propagation of it. And upon this very account they clap one the other upon the back, and resolve unanimously to go on with what they have begun, notwithstanding all the opposition they shall meet withal: for who would not suffer the loss of Estate, Liberty or Life itself in a cause against which such ungodly men are severe and bitter? and who would not expect Heaven for a reward hereafter, who meet with such harsh and cruel deal from men, who do too much by their oaths and curses betray themselves to be the Agents and Instruments of Hell?  
And though this is but a popular plea, and will not hold water when it comes to be thoroughly searched and tried, though laws are never the worse for the wickedness of those to whom the execution of them is committed, and though Justice is the same thing, when done by a wicked as a Godly Magistrate; yet for our Zions sake I could wish with all mine Heart, that our Magistrates, when such Malefactors are brought before them, would execute public Justice like men who do not appear to sacrifice to their own revenge, but who design a public good, to wit the reducing people to those Principles of subjection and obedience, without which we must needs be exposed to continual dangers and hazards.  
It is not to be imagined how these refractory persons are silenced, when they appear before Magistrates of Prudence and Discretion, such as treat them with all tenderness and pity, representing to them the evil of their doing, and gravely admonishing them against such do for the time to come, executing the Laws upon them with all the symptoms of grief and trouble, with all the demonstrations of a Spirit that carries in it true compassion for those who ignorantly err, and a readiness hearty to pray for those who are obstinate and wilful; this is to follow the Apostles advice, to restore our said Brethren with the spirit of meekness, and this is the only way to beget in them a belief, that as truly pious, tender and gracious spirits may lodge in the Breasts of men every ways obedient to those Laws (they by their wily Preachers are made to believe, are destructive of the Rights of the Lord Jesus) as in any men of any other, yea of their own particular persuasion. Nay for aught I know, this prudent and compassionate carriage may be the occasion of their recovery from their present separation. For certainly nothing more pacifies Wrath and Anger (from which we all know Nonconformity receives no inconsiderable strength and addition) than a word in season, a soit word, a wise carriage even to Delinquents themselves, especially when all this is done by men of Authority and Reputation in their Neighbourhood.  
And therefore I do here put up my hearty Prayers to Almighty God, for all our Chiefs and Worthies, in whose hands the defence and safety of our excellent and yet despised Church is lodged, that as Judgement may run down like water and Righteousness like a mighty stream, so That Righteousness may meet with Peace and love, and they may kiss each other: and as I do not wish the suspension of any Laws, wherein the welfare of Societies is wrapped, so I do wish, that whensoever they are put in execution, it may be in such a way as may convince gainsayers, and stop the mouths of all those, who lie at catch to take advantage from the haltings either of Magistrates or Ministers.  
Lastly, This Church loses very much of its deserved reputation by those mean and seamy provisions and supplies that are made for many of her Children, whose educations and improvements entitle them to greater encouragements than most of the Vicaridges in England are endowed withal; and till this be remedied, as I hinted somewhat before, we must never have things so prosperous and successful on the Church's side as she does indeed deserve: For 'tis impossible (considering how things go, and are apprehended by the major part of the World) for Clergymen to conciliate a just respect to themselves, and thereby to recommend the Government to the love and liking of the Vulgar, without such Incomes as are agreeable to their Function, and will enable them to be of the giving as well as receiving hand.  
And truly when I have sat down sometimes, and considered with myself the several reasons and occasions of the late cruel and blondy War, I could not but resolve both it, and the dreadful consequences of it, amongst some other things, into this of which I am now complaining: and I have often thought, that it had not been possible for the people of England to have been drawn into such a combination and confederacy against so excellent a Prince, had they not been strangely perverted and abused by some discontented and self-seeking knaves. And who they were 'tis no hard matter to conjecture; for if you had gone before the War into Cities and incorporated Towns, where usually the spiritual Live are made up of few and petty Tithes, there you should have found a Malcontented Gentleman had fixed his habitation, making some tolerable snow of Hospitality especially to the Mayor or Aldermen and their Brethren, and by his advice and means a factious Preacher brought in, depending upon voluntary subscriptions for his livelihood; who by tones and gestures, by shrugs and winks, by all popular artifices was continually suggesting suspicions of the Government to the people, (the Dames especially, who they say in those places and in those times governed the Right Worshipful themselves,) and the great Themes of their Discourses were the Wickedness of the times, the encroachments of the Bishops upon the Rights of the Lord Jesus, the stinting of the spirit by Forms of Prayer, the severe dealing with the people of God, (that was themselves) but withal (which was a great cordial to their oppressed spirits,) the great Reasons of the Saints joyful expectation of better times, fetched out of Daniel or Revelations, places admirably fitted to the Dames apprehensions and understandings, with an hundred such like popular insinuations as these; and by this means the people were taught to suspect their Governors as Enemies to the cause of God, and from thence brought to an hatred of them, and so by degrees fitted for any undertaking these cunning Leaders should in the name of God and the Lord Jesus animate them unto. And by these ways were the people of England seduced into the most unnatural rebellion, which ended in the most horrid Murder that History can parallel. Whereas had these Great Towns been furnished with such Encouragements as might have invited men of integrity and learning to have sat down amongst them, the People had been better taught, and consequently disposed to nothing but what was expressive of Loyalty and Obedience, of their hearty affection and esteem for him, to whose care and Government the providence of God had committed them. For let but the common people hear nothing but what is agreeable to the Laws of Societies and Bodies Politic, let the Doctrines they are made acquainted with be such as make for peace and order, and you shall find no men more tractable, nor yet more zealous. And upon this very score I have often wished, that all those persons who are suffered to discourse to Multitudes, were men of prudence, and orderly compliance with the Laws under which we live; we might I am sure then hope for a longer continuance of happiness and prosperity in the Nation, than we can (if some men enjoy the liberty which contrary to so many Statute Laws they have usurped) expect.  
And now that which I infer from this reflection is this, That if such short provision, for men of worth and education has been the occasion of the State and Churches ruin once already; who can tell but it may be of as evil consequence again? And therefore I think the whole Nation owes thanks to our present Parliament for their late readiness to remedy this evil by considering some further kindness to the Clergy than was shown at the first alienation of Church Revenues. And I will once be so bold as to say, that it had been never the worse for the Crown of England (considering what Spirits have risen up since that great purge Henry the Eighth gave the Church) had all those Impropriations that were found annexed to Monasteries and Abbeys, been given to the countenancing and supporting a learned and orthodox Clergy in all the corners of the Kingdom. Nay I will venture further and assert, Had this been done, the late unparallelled Prince, if the golden Sands of his life in their natural course, would have run so long as to this time, as in all probability they would, if conjectures may be made from the strength, and soundness of all his vital parts, (which was apparent after his cruel Murder) I say that he might still have lived happily amongst us, untouched by the rude hands of violence; and this I think may be made out by such a necessary train of consequences as cannot easily be denied.  
But this is not all I have to say under this Head; Upon enquiry we shall find further mischiefs ensuing from the poor and contemptible Incomes of men by sacred Office dedicated to the immediate Worship of God.  
1. A man is thereby dispirited. There is, we all know, a certain frame and temper, a certain spirit and humour, that is very necessary as well as commendable and praise worthy for all those several places and conditions men are fixed in; and for any one to carry himself otherways than is becoming his present circumstances, especially such as suppose him clothed with any Office or separated Function, why, that very thing proves amongst the greatest part of Mandkind a lessening of his personal esteem, and withal a reflection upon and diminution of the very office itself, among those whose Judgements are altogether governed by outward representations and resemblances.  
Now this very Humour which is better and more easily discerned in a man who is perfect Master of it, than it is expressed by words, is very much lost, where men are forcibly married to narrow Fortunes, where their Incomes are no ways suitable to the real as well as apprehended Dignity of those offices they are vested with; and 'tis impossible for a man to lift up his Head with that befiting Majesty, with that necessary and withal humble greatness of spirit, that hath never a penny in his purse, as another of a plentiful accession of outward blessings can do to very good advantage both to his person and his Function.  
Alas when a man's spirit is gone, besides the loss he sustains in himself, by neglecting all those Improvements, which further hopes and expectations put him upon, he sinks into disesteem amongst his Neighbours, and consequently his person is despised, and his Ministry neglected, and people hear him with as little reverence in the Church as they admire him in his forlorn and threadbare habit in the streets.  
And if the Church suffer by her Church officers, as without dispute by their miscarriages she does, than I leave the World to judge whether it be policy to let her continue stripped so naked of those necessary clothes, which if not adorn her, yet would keep her warm.  
2. As this does dispirit, so many times God knows it does debauch a man, which is a thing of a very pernicious consequence to our excellent Church, and can only prove her ruin. For as I hinted in the former part of this Discourse, when we have answered all our Adversaries Arguments, drawn from misinterpreted and abused places of Scripture, they presently fall upon us with this reflection, which though God be thanked is not so generally true, as they would make the World believe, yet we must not wholly deny it, 'tis too apparent in many public concourses, that there are some indiscreet and unwary Clergymen.  
And now upon inquiry we shall find the mean provisions of the Clergy have been one great reason of their declension from the exact and necessary Rules of life. For these men not having wherewithal to furnish themselves with Books to enlarge their thoughts and meditations in order to allure them to solitude and retirement, and it may be having a charge, and not wherewithal to satisfy the cravings and necessary importunities of their distressed Families, why they have first fled from their discontented selves, and then it may be into company, to avoid the din and clamour of their Children, and when they are once engaged in evil Company, they are hearty to be pitied, for they are in the High way to ruin, especially when through a little use, and a few month's custom their Fancies are taken with it; alas they than like other depraved men, are unsatisfied so long as they are at home, and their Studies are the only rooms in the house they do not see from one week to another: and so by degrees after they have worn out all those Characters of Religion which were engraven upon their minds, and wasted the modesty of their Souls, and forgot the Dignity of their Function, alas they enter into these houses of good Fellowship, with as much boldness and unconcernedness, as the veriest plow-jobbers can do, and so become fit for nothing but the Church's severest Censures.  
But in the mean time does the Church thrive by this? I trow not, no no, she presently amongst a great many heedless or malicious people, must bear the burden of it all, and the crafty Sectary takes all opportunities to hand this from one place to another, joyfully raising his own and his party's credit, upon the ruins of other men's reputation; but then  
3. If Poverty does neither the one nor the other, yet it commonly discontents them, and so makes them Firebrands in the Government. For such men as are of tolerable Learning, and resolved temperance, when they observe themselves neglected, whilst others, whom they cannot esteem equal to themselves, get into fat preferments, why they grow vexed and impatient, and straightways their thoughts are fixed upon revenge, and from a quarrel with those who sit at the Helm, they fall out with the Government itself, and all their parts are bend upon finding out plausible Arguments and pretences to sink its reputation amongst the people, and no stone is left unturned to carry on this wicked purpose and resolution.  
It is an easy matter to make this assertion out, from the accounts of every age of Christianity. Heresies, Schisms, seditions and public disturbances, have most of them crept in at this back door; and whosoever will give himself the leave to take a just account of the Apostasy of many from our Church some few years after the Reformation, and ever since, he will not be long before he find this its original and spring; which thing though not altogether, yet very much had been prevented, if all the Spiritual allotments for Ministers had been comfortable, and such as would have afforded wise men, (for I undertake not to be an advocate for Fools and Prodigals) a convenient and creditable maintenance.  

AND now having said thus much in the vindication of this excellent Church, and withal given the Reasons of those many disparagements she hath in these late years met withal, I cannot draw off my pen from paper, till by it I have made my humble address to the Nobility and Gentry, and all others who are concerned, by virtue either of their Principles or Estates, in the preservation of the Kingdom's peace, and Nations welfare, and are very unwilling to be sad spectators of those ruins and desolations, that not many years ago, many of them to their own as well as the Nations sorrow, were too sadly acquainted withal; till, I say, I have made my humble address to them, and implored them by all that is near and dear to them, to use that power God and the King hath entrusted them withal, in stifling those Opinions, in suppressing those dangerous Principles and Maxims, in preventing those practices, which have had so bad an influence upon the Body Politic, and in using all methods by which they may be kept from the Common People, whom we find by sad experience easily leavened, and as easily afterwards wrought upon, to enter into any Evil action, whereby the peace and happiness of the Kingdom may be endangered.  
And though it may be, this address may be looked upon as the product of a malitions and revengeful spirit, yet God that knows the hearts of men, knows it flows from no such bitter Fountain; but so far as I am in a capacity to serve any of these persons, against whom I now complain in their personal capacity, no man can I am sure be more ready and more forward. Let them but live agreeable to the Laws under which they live, and that but as far as their own avowed Principles will give them leave, which I think is a very reasonable request, and they shall not want that just esteem from myself, and so I am sure from all men of my Principles, that they do deserve. Which if they will not do, but continue resolute in widening our differences, making our breaches greater, forming men into parties and numbers in opposition to the injunction of all those prudent Laws that are enacted by the great Authority of the Nation, and thereby strengthening and encouraging that deplorable Schism that is amongst us, why truly I think he wants the Spirit and Courage of a Man who holds his tongue, and by his silence gives the least spirit to such undertake.  
For alas, what can we imagine all this will centre and bottom in? and who will be the chief gainers by these divisions? That certainly is no hard matter to determine. And truly in my apprehension 'tis very sad, that the revenge of our Nonconforming Brethren should be so great against the Church of England, that rather than she shall continue in any glory, and be vested with any Authority, they will use their utmost endeavours to pull her down though it be to the destruction of the Protestant Cause, both at home and abroad, and to the Introduction of Popery itself. A good sign indeed of a Gospel Spirit, and of that tenderness of Conscience these men profess upon all occasions, when pressed to any necessary compliance with the Laws of the Kingdom!  
And therefore seeing it is so, that these men will play any game, rather than that in which the safety of the Church as well as State is concerned, truly I think all the true Patriots of the Country, aught to look upon them accordingly, and give them such fare, (as by those Oaths they take when they are admitted to their office,) they are obliged to. And seeing they are resolved we shall fall, though they know it must needs be accompanied with so great a ruin to that Cause and Interest, which was purchased with the blood of the Martyrs, which hath been a Sanctuary to distressed and banished Foreigners, and which indeed, as it is here maintained by so many prudent Laws, is the only stay and support of all the Protestant Churches abroad; seeing, I say, they are resolved to have their wills of this Church, notwithstanding these sad and too much to be feared effects and consequences of it, I do declare, I think all true hearted Magistrates, in whose hands the execution of the Laws does lie, aught to let them know, that they own more Regard to the present Government of the Kingdom; and that if they will continue fixed in their Resolves to bear down all that stands in their way to the undermining the Church's safety and reputation, so on the other hand they the Magistrates are as well resolved to hinder by all legal and worthy means so great and so unseasonable a violence to those Laws, wherein men's Estates and Liberties, men's Religion, and consequently their Souls are so much concerned.  
And I am certain nothing is a greater argument among the present Magistrates, either of Cowardice, or else of Ignorance and Non-observation, than to suffer such assaults upon Government, without a suitable resentment of them, and to connive at such practices, as are apparently tending to shuffle in a Religion once again amongst us, by which the Prince loses half his Government, and the people all their Reason and Sense together.  
And therefore, Worthy Sirs, I beg of you to consider what is incumbent upon you at present; do not you let Justice sleep, while covetousness and ambition, while Faction and discontent is devouring and eating up all those sober principles, whereby your Estates as well as any thing else is secured to you and your Posterity after you. Let not a Church that teaches all her Members to live contentedly in all those subordinations the Providence of God hath placed them, and up to all those Duties, which belong to those several places; I say, let not this Church be scorned and trampled under feet, by rude and revengeful persons. And if you think them people of meek and peaceable spirits, in whose public Liberty there is no danger, pray inquire after the treatments, those Worthies whose Consciences obliged them to follow the Fortunes of that late incomparable King of blessed memory met withal from them, and that will save me the labour of giving an account of the temper of a great part of them. 'Tis true, were they all of that nature and disposition, of that Learning and wisdom, some of them are, there might be some apology made for them: but alas, the common Followers, I and many of their Teachers too, are violent and headstrong, quickly inflamed and overheated, and then for want of knowledge and due consideration of things, with great difficulty managed, and kept within any proper and allowed bounds, a thing which some of their very Preachers have complained of to myself and others.  
And therefore, why you who are the Instruments of Justice, out of pity to some few, whose parts and piety may possibly recommend them to the esteem and love of all good men, should suffer herds of men, whose zeal outstrips their knowledge, whose Passions surmount their Prudence, whose Religion many times is more the result of the temper of the Body than the rational conviction of the soul; why you, I say, should suffer the Laws to be violated, when no other end can be proposed than showing a compassion to some few, who deserve a name among the wise and truly learned, I profess I cannot tell: Especially when at the same time the Honour of the Laws, by a neglect of Justice, is exposed to the contempt and scorn of such Numbers, who must (if we would follow those Maxims of Policy, which all wise Governors ever since Communities of men were agreed upon, have observed) who must I say be kept in with bit and bridle.  
And having thus addressed myself to the Ministers of Public Justice, I cannot obtain a Writ of Ease from myself, until I have said something to those very persons, whose designs I have in the foregoing Treatise exposed, and whose Methods of ruin to the Church and Kingdom I have discovered. And here I am not afraid to tell them, that many of them are my Acquaintance, in whose civil conversation I have and do take pleasure, and to whom upon some scores I have stood engaged; the piety and strictness of many of their Lives I admire and love; these with some other things would reconcile me to them, did not my zeal for the Nations happiness, my duty to a Church, by whom I and all the World may be sufficiently instructed in all things necessary to be believed and practised: Further, did not my Fears (and God knows those too well grounded) of the return of a Religion amongst us (and that caused chief by these men's stubbornness) the agreement with which must at the same time, be to fall out with all those Faculties, whereby we are in capacities to discern things that differ; Did not these things with many others thus dispose of and command me, I say I could wish these men all the happiness in this World, that upon good Grounds they could desires.  
And therefore pray Sirs, let me entreat you to consider what you are a doing whilst so resolvedly you continue to separate from our Church; why truly, pardon me if I err, I think I do not, I cannot say you are doing the business of Religion, for that I am sure may be as well, nay all things considered, better done by those under the Discipline and Government of our Church, as I have showed in the beginning of this Treatise. In which I am the more satisfied from the observations I have made of many of your admired Followers, whose Lives as far as I can discern are spent most upon pitying Public Magistrates and Ministers, and shaking their heads at the times, with many other popular and usual artifices of misrepresenting things or persons not just according to their Minds.  
Again, I cannot say you are doing the Business of your Governors, settling the People in the notions of obedience and submission, begetting in them venerable thoughts of those who are Gods trusties on Earth; no, for we find, no sooner do men wheel off from our Church, and list themselves under your Banners, but presently they grow jealous of the Powers of the Nation, and are always furnished with idle tales and groundless whispers, to lessen their Reputation among the Common People.  
Nay further I cannot say, you are doing your own business, for alas throw us but once down, and you know by old experience, that you are all together by the ears, and scarce ten of you can agree together, upon any thing that may be the Foundation of a future settlement, but all are striving to be the Greatest, and every man hath such a fond opinion of his own way, as to think, nay to proclaim it, deserving to be the Nations Standard, yea and to pronounce bitter Curses against all those who will not concur in Judgement with him.  
And truly for the satisfaction of a great many well meaning persons, who at present are imposed upon, I could wish, were it but lawful to permit it, and consistent with the Kingdoms and Church's safety, that the Ball might lie at your feet for a few days; methinks I see what animosities and heats, what strifes and contentions would presently be in the midst of you, and how quickly all you, who now combine together against our poor despised Church, would fall into a thousand parties, and what variety of Churches we presently should have form, and the best of it is, every one of them vogued to be according to the pattern in the Mount.  
And therefore Brethren, for God's sake recollect yourselves and do not sacrifice the Protestant Religion to your own lusts and passions, comply with the Laws in imitation of the old Puritans, as far as you can, and then I do not doubt, but our Governors will find out some way or other, to let you understand their Resentments of your orderly compliance; and certainly 'tis better to build our hopes of future kindness from our Prince upon public manifestations of peaceableness of Spirit, than upon threats and menaces, than upon bold and daring actions, whereby we intimate unto him that if he will not give us according to our Wills and Pleasure, we will snatch it from him, and that by force too, whether he will or no.  
One word more and I have done; I beseech you do not say that this intimation of Popery in and through your disobedience to the Church's Laws is a popular plea, invented on purpose to make you odious among the People. I profess as it is mentioned here by me, 'tis no such thing; but the result of a full satisfaction I have, that nothing can make way for that Religion, but the ruin of the Church of England. And truly I am so far from rendering you odious, that if you could agree among yourselves, upon any thing consistent with the Church's Peace and Safety, I would give my Prayers and all honest endeavours whatsoever to contribute towards your contentment. But till then pray give us leave to secure ourselves from such desolations (as will end in your destruction as well as ours) by all agreeable ways and means whatsoever.  
And now after all this, if you will suffer your selves to be so provoked, as one while to pity me and then again revile me, I have no more to say, but that I am fully satisfied in my own Conscience in what I have done; and that for a requital, I am resolved to make you the objects of my hearty pity, and the subjects of my Prayers, but not mine anger and revenge, for that is not to follow our Master's command, To love our enemies, to bless them that curse, to to do good to them that hate us, to pray for them which despitefully use us, and persecute us, which may be done with Tongues as well as Hands: which good and excellent advice I am resolved through the assistance of God's Gracious Spirit to pursue and follow; and therefore let those against whom this little Treatise is chief leveled, deal with my person or good name as they please, I am prepared for it.   
THE END.   

Lately Printed for Richard Royston at the Angel in Amen-Corner.  
THE Estate of the EMPIRE: or, an Abridgement of the Laws and Government of Germany; farther showing what Condition the EMPIRE was in, when the Peace was concluded at Munster: Also the several Fights, Battles, and Desolation of Cities during the War in that EMPIRE: And also of the GOLDEN BULL. In Octavo.  
The Sycillian Tyrant: Or, The Life and Death of AGATHOCLES: With some Reflections on our Modern Usurpers. Octavo.  
The ROYAL MARTYR, and the Dutiful Subject, In two Sermons: By Gilbert Burnet. In Quarto.  
The Generosity of Christian Love; Delivered in a Sermon, by William Gould. Quarto.  
The Witnesses to Christanity: By Sy. Patrick, D. D. Octavo.  
Ductor Dubitantium: Or, Bishop Tailors Cases of Conscience. The Fourth Edition. Folio.  
The Life and Death of K. CHARLES the First: By R. Perenchief, D. D. Octavo.