A Modest APOLOGY For the SUSPENDED BISHOPS; WITH A Brief Vindication of the Address which was signed in their Favour by the Grand-Jury of the County of GLOUCESTER: At the last Lent Assizes.  
By a Gentleman of the said Grand-Jury.  
LONDON, Printed by T. B. and are to be Sold by Randolph Tailor near Stationers-Hall, 1690.   

To the Right Worshipful WILLIAM DENNIS, Esq; The High Sheriff of the County of GLOUCESTER.  
Honoured Sir,  
I Here present you with a brief Vindication of Truth and Charity, from the Insolent Spite of a restless Faction: For there are certain busy Gentlemen in this Country, that pass a rough Compliment on me and others, who by your Precept attended their Majesty's Service at Gloucester. Nor are they content to traduce and bespatter us; but they seem to join you in our Conspiracy. Their common Language (and how are they tickled with the Music of the Expression!) rans in the Cadence, that our Master High Sheriff's, Under Sheriff's Popish Jury signed a Petition against Law. Certainly they will storm more violently against this new Attempt; nor will the ensuing Discourse, which contains a modest Apology for the distressed Bishops be grateful to them, who laboured so industriously to stifle our last Paper.  
It would raise a strange Agony of Mind in any moderate Person, to consider the sordid Malice of our Adversaries, and the impudent Calumnies with which they have vented their Spleen against us. For they are become such topping Proficients in the Devil's School, that they can adapt a Story (be it never so immodest) to the various Circumstances of Time and Place. By the Industry of this black Art, they drew a dark Veil upon our Persons and our Designs, and gave us a Character which they knew would disappoint the Success of of our Hopes. For the Clergy of Norfolk having in most submissive Terms made their Application to the Court, in Favour of their Bishop, it was the Fortune of our Address to be preferred by us at the same juncture; and no sooner were Copies of it conveyed to London, but certain Zealots took the sudden Alarm, and gave out (according to their usual and profane Practice of downright Lying) that the conforming Ministers of Gloucester-shire had signed a seditious Petition derogatory to the Proceed of his Majesty, and of the two Honourable Houses of Parliament; and that this was performed by the joint Combination of the Clergy of the two Dioceses. The absurd Story gained such Credit and Vogue in the Town, that many honest Gentlemen were so far imposed on, as to be drawn into the Belief of it. And a Reverend and good prelate (who was a famous Sufferer in the last Reign) being sensibly afflicted with the Surprise, dispatched a serious Letter to our Diocesan, in which he expostulated with him on this Occasion: The Affair also was so foully misrepresented at Court, that our Friends there thought it an unreasonable Attempt to promote either of the two Addresses; by which Means they both remain buried in a Suspension with the Bishops.  
I think myself obliged, in Answer to the unjust Aspersion, to affirm, that no Clergyman had the View of our Address before it was published at the Assizes, much less could it be an Address of theirs. And I must also assure you, that in framing the ensuing Discourse, I received no Instructions or Assistance from them, but my own Meditations, which I acknowledge (without any Man's Opinion in the Case) are attended with great Poverty of Thought, suggested to me the innocent Design and Management of the Trifle, and by its mean Composure, you will quickly perceive that I am no Plagiary.  
Thus submitting the Justice of our present Cause to our good God, with whom there is no Respect of Persons, and at whose Tribunal all intriguing Liars will be sentenced to a dreadful Flame, that will eternally scorch their profane Lips; I advise our Leasing-makers' to a timely Repentance, and bid them adieu, till they provoke us with new Indignities. I am,  
Honoured Sir, Your Humble Servant, and Faithful Neighbour.   

A Modest APOLOGY For the SUSPENDED BISHOPS, etc.  
AS in the Roman History we may observe, that the Flattery of the People, by which the Enormities of the Caesar's were professedly indulged, gave an infallible proof to the distempers of a sick and languishing Government; so if we reflect with just resentment on the like gross Vanity, which prevailed for some Years in this Nation, and derived encouragement from the Court, which ought to have been the School of more noble Exploits; we must acknowledge, that the same slavish extravagance, so fond entertained among us, ushered in the fatal degeneracy and corruption of our State.  
But among all the fawning Addresses which were Dedicated to our Kings, we may esteem none more pernicious than those bold Advances of Officious Ceremony, which, in Favour of most unjustifiable Proceed, struck at the Foundation of our Laws, and led in a direct tendency to their Subversion. For though the pretences did bare a formal and sanctify'd Dress, and were armed with the Phylactery of Pharisaical righteousness, yet did the Design carry with it a dreadful iniquity. The intrigue was begun in Hell, proposed at Douai, Licenced at Rome, confirmed at Paris, and was ready to have delivered its effects in London, and our other City's, had not the Providence of God raised up to us a Deliverer.  
It is well known who in that Age of Trial were the Betrayers of their Country, and who in compliance with a wretched Declaration, which seemed to Petition the People for Addresses, were drawn into a most destructive Adventure. I shall not therefore at present Prie into the full Mystery of that iniquity (it being in part discovered in another place of this discourse) but leave it to the scourge of Historians, and to other faithful Animadverters.  
However I must not omit (since it falls within the compass of our immediate review) a Comical Scene I formerly beheld at Gloucester, where that Skeleton of Law Judge Allebon performed a meritorious part, and proposed in open Court his Terms of Accommodation. The Holy Man told us, That our two Churches were agreed in the grand-point of the real Presence, That the invocation of Saints was enjoined by the fifth Comandment: That 'twas inconsistent with Christian Charity to suffer Penal-Laws and a distinguishing Test to render the Religion of a gracious Prince uneasy to the Subject; and that a general Toleration would advance the dignity and Port of our Nation: He drew parallel Lines from the prosperity of the Hans-Towns, and from the flourishing State of the Low-Countries; and I expected to have heard him sum up his Sermon with a remark on the Blessed Effects which the uninterrupted course of Liberty produced in Sodom, Laish and Gibeah of Benjamin.  
The kind and tenderhearted Grand-Jury (among whom were herded Saints of many different Communions) were soon inflamed with a Sympathising Zeal, and could not but gratify the little Scarlet Image with a Paper, first conveyed in a Whisper to them from a Factor of the Court, in which they dispatched their public thanks to his Majesty for his Declaration, with the promise (if I understood their meaning) to return, I should have said to elect (since the other expression contains the Office of their Popish Sheriff) such Representatives for Parliament, who might answer the King's demands; or who in plain English would break down all the Fences, which kept out Superstition, and all the other invasions upon our just Liberties. This was an Address with a witness, and highly magnified by many, who cannot be reconciled to the sincerity and moderation of our last Inquest.  
I cannot but admire the Wisdom and renowned bravery of our undaunted Heroes the Bishops, who, in the midst of the impetuous storms of those licentious Times, opposed the Buckler of our Laws to the new and unexampled enterprise. They did maintain (not without the concurrence of an Almighty Power) our Religion and Civil Rights against the Stratagems and brisk Assaults of daring Enemies. Nor did they faintly repel the Force; but when they received the express Command of a Potent King to be as base as other Men they remonstrated in masculine Terms, and replied to their Sovereign with such Christian courage as confounded the Papal valour, and silenced their Adversaries, and those who were then jealous of the prosperity of their Mitre.  
I would not be supposed to instruct or remind any Persons of the just Debt and Duty of gratitude, if I affirm, that the calamity and rigorous sufferings which befell our Church and those good Fathers after their inimitable conduct, proved the Great Engine, and one of the most profitable pretences, which the Authors of the late Revolution used in promoting their Enterprise. The Separatists were then indulged with Freedom, this being the successful Return to their temporising Addresses. The Apostles of Muncer, Nayler and Muggleton enjoyed the Privilege of a Sanctuary: the other Dissenters whom we own (though against their Wills) to be our Brethren, were lulled into a fatal security: All the Factions, as they Danced to the Music of the Court, and gratified Father Petre in the current of his desires; so they could not be supposed thus triumphing in the Event and Luxury of their wishes, to afford any reasonable matter for the Groundwork of our wonderful Deliverance.  
His present Majesty had another Path to which a Divine Power led him, and his Eyes were Arrested with more serious and pressing Objects. 'Twas then that the Prince, like another Constantine, declared he would undertake the Patronage of our Church, and made its Defence one of the most Honourable and cogent Reasons for his descent into England.  
He saw Seven Bishops (and how renowned is that Mystical Number?) condemned, like their Forefathers in Dioclesian's Rage, to a dreadful confinement among Murderers and Traitors. He saw a suspension passed on another Bishop, and the like Thunder threatened against the rest of his Brethren. He saw the Divines of both Provinces attacked by the Tyrannical decrees of an Arbitrary Commission, and Successors appointed to them out of the Storehouse of St. James'. He saw the Franchises of the Church dissolved, and the Schools of the Prophets invaded by seminary Priests. By this manifest Injustice, and deliberate Sacrilege, so effrontedly carried on against the loud Oracle of our Laws, the Charter of our Religion, and the common Principles of Honour, the Illustrious Nassau did plainly perceive, that the whole Kingdom was put to Sale, and Sacrificed to the Ambition of the French Monarch, who is the Darling of St. Loyola; he therefore disputed the condition of the Tenure with the first unfortunate Proprietor, and the Title of the Purchase with the other bold Pretender: God hath been pleased to Crown him with success against both; nor can it lessen the Glory of the Atcheiument if (after his Majesty) we make an Honourable mention of our Bishops, and Petition the Champion of our Church on their behalf, since the Umbrage of their name hath been so advantag'ous to his design.  
In this confidence I presume that the Address, Subscribed by our last Grand-jury, may be worthy of its short vindication, because it speaks in Favour of the very same Men who could never trifle with Earthly Princes: they are those Reverend Persons who first taught us to Petition after a just and Honourable way, and by their Prayers and Tears promoted a successful Address to the Court of Heaven.  
The Crime with which they now stand charged, does not consist in gross Immoralities, nor is their suspensions (as I have already discovered) for any base compliance with the noted miscarriages of the late Government, but it proceeds from their refusal to swear in a certain settled Form of Words to the present, under which notwithstanding they endeavour to live conformable. They conceal their Reasons, and therefore in good manners I shall not dive into them further than to suppose that in matters of such importance one and the same standing Rule does direct them; so that if the expressions are so moderately qualified that their Hearts may in so serious a performance move with their Lips, an Oath doth not bare the consideration of a scruple with them; but they esteem Hypocrisy to be too mean a slave to intrude either into their external Submissions, or to be Listed with them in the Service of their Prince.  
Althô this Practice be not agreeable to carnal Policy which serves as a Weathercock to all Changes, yet in Matters of solemn Moment all hasty and sudden Compliances are by the Rules of true Ethics strictly condemned: for as we ought to chain the means and the end together, so must we never disjoin the Vtile and the Bonum. And therefore Prudence (which, being an intellectual Virtue, is by Aristotle defined to be an habit of right Reason) doth consult not only of the Universal Precepts and Laws of Life, which are more certain then to require much deliberate Study; but descending (and that more properly) to particular Actions, and to their various Circumstances from which the Regularity and depravity of those Actions depend, she brings them up the Touchstone of Reason and Virtue: And having taken Counsel by a diligent preparation of Mind, she than makes her choice, and adheres to that which is best. Now; as a deliberation cannot be performed without freedom of Spirit, so neither can there be a good Election, where the Office of deliberation is not fully determined. For Conscience (which with respect to the knowledge of Right and of Fact is a conjunct Science) must give its concurrent Vote in all Matters of Practice, or else the Consultation is frivolous and irregular or rather no Consultation at all, and therefore if the Mind doth still strive with Intricacies, and cannot be certain of the probability or rather the necessity of Right, it will never admit the necessity of Fact, be the temptations otherwise never so powerful. So that as Prudence doth attempt nothing of importance which hath not an apparent Profit annexed to it, so doth she esteem that alone to be profitable, which is also good. The Wisdom of the best Statesmen has still entertained this Moral Doctrine for a just Principle, and certainly it doth afford the best interpretation to that memorable Expression of Vlpianus, which he delivered as a great Law of Politics to the Romans: In Rebus novis constituendis evidens utilitas esse debet, ne recedatur ab eo quod diu aequum visum est, and I cannot but believe it was also introductive as of the late Practices, so of the present Sentiments of the Bishops; who are not governed by a Peevish or Supercilious humour, but mourn in Spirit for the Miseries of the Protestant Church and pray for the Prosperity of the English Canaan, though, like Moses, they are not permitted to enjoy an Inheritance in it. This which some call Obstinacy, Pride and Prejudice (the three grand Enemies of prudential deliberations) will appear, as I hope, no such dangerous and wicked temper, when we have modestly considered it, and charitably interpreted it.  
I am confident the World need not be advertised under what a dreadful Hurricane our Nation hath lately laboured. I shall not make a sorrowful research after a like Example into the Confusions of former Centuries, when the Pagan or Popish Religion did bare a Regency in the Land. It is most certain we have had nothing that Challenges the Affinity of an exact Parallel to those Troubles since our Blessed Reformation: Our Bishops therefore who are professedly studious, as of the Peace, so of the Glory of that Establishment, were loath immediately to admit the sharp and extreme Remedies which were recommended to them as necessary for their own Securities. Many others, and among them not a few who Flattered and Addressed the Abdicated Monarch into his Ruin, did rejoice and triumph in the Afflictions of that calamitous Prince; but our Prelates scorned such an Unchristian Revenge; for, if in the Council of Arles under Leo the First it was condemned for an heathenish Barbarity to use Mirth in the House of Mourning, and to sport in the view of the melancholy Incentives; how could our Holy Primate and his Brethren be supposed to Laugh and Sing in the Agony of our Church and State? as Samuel mourned for Saul's Abjection, so did they lament the late King's Misery, and forgot his rigid Severities exercised on them. They have in the great pangs of Spirit, and in the anguish of their Soul often wept for their avowed Enemy, and endeavoured with their holy Tears, like the Sovereign Balm Tree, to cure his Wounds who cut and mangled them. In short they were Bishops of the best reformed Church, and were cautious how they intermeddled in tumult and secular Tragedy.  
And are they not now of the like unspotted Fame for their quiet resignation and peaceable deport under the present Settlement? Are they not Sacred in their Majesty's Register, beloved and pitied by Men of exact Piety, and highly admired by their greatest Enemies? Let us not then furiously pursue them, nor deride the loss of their former Stations; for though, during their present Eclipse, they are not crowned with the brightest Beams, yet, like the languishing Aecolampadius, they clap their hands on their Breasts, and say, hic sat lucis, hic sat radiorum. To conclude; let them be accounted worthy of the best usage now, who were so unworthy of the harsh Treatment in the last Reign, we well remember how religiously they then conformed to the dictates of their Consciences, and we are bound in Charity to believe they are not at this time directed by a different Rule.  
The Obligations of Oaths (and particularly those in which the Government doth concern its own immediate Interest and Security) hath been in all Nations attended with Veneration and Respect. The Romans styled it their Sacrament, the violation of which drew after it such a dreadful Chain of Infamy, that exceeded the most heavy Penalties, Hierocles, speaking as from the Chair of Pythagoras, pronounces, that a great part of Religious Worship is contained in it; and does plainly affirm, that the unstable or timorous ought not to engage in the Solemnity of so Sacred an Act. Philo Judaeus doth admonish every one to whom an Oath is proposed, that he carefully consider all Circumstances, and whether he hath a right Notion of what he is doing, otherwise, saith he, the great God is blasphemed. The Books of Christians (and surely the Bishops have carefully perused them) are full of the same Doctrine: for they tell us, that, to avoid all Abuses in this Holy Service, we ought to take Three Companions with us, viz. Truth, Justice and Judgement: so that we must no● oblige ourselves to a thing we know is false or evil in its Nature, nor to that of which we entertain a dubious thought, nor to what is unworthy the Majesty of the Holy God into whose more especial presence we do approach.  
No Person, who hath ever treated of the nature of Oaths and their Obligation, doth on any account advise or allow the engaging in an Oath, which doth raise an unanswerable scruple in the Mind, and to which a Man thinks he cannot be exactly conformable without hazarding his Salvation. Conscience is a Mark beyond the stretch of Human Power, and bears a Sovereign Authority above the Arrests of Parliaments, and the Edicts of Princes: Nec per Senatum, saith Lactantius, nec per populum solvi hac lege possumus. On this account all Earthly Potentates are excused their Exercise of Jurisdiction, the King of Kings having by his Apostle published as the Statute Law of Heaven, that whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin. Nor do I think that any Monarch can be secure in the Fidelity of those Persons, who have first broken their Allegiance with their God: since therefore the Suspended Bishops are not yet satisfied in the perplexity of their doubt, which so much affects them, I suppose that for this Reason they refuse to Swear.  
But truly when I consider the just Merit of these Prelates, with the divine Spirit that reigns in their Breasts, and the memorable Experience we have had of their former Gallantry; I humbly conceive (without any violence to the Rules of common Reason, Religion and Policy, or derogation from the Sacred Proceed of the two honourable Houses of Parliament) that their Parol of Honour to conform with Obedience to the present Government (which they are studiously inclined to do) might have been at first accepted by the Legislative Power as a sufficient Tie upon them without any more solemn Obligation.  
We have Cases even in Pagan story which favour the Merit of Virtue; for the Ephesian Judges, in consideration of the sincerity of Hermodorus, would not for a time permit him to give testimony (nor be otherwised obliged) by Oath. And Cicero in his Oration for Cornelius Balbus reports of an honest Athenian, how that when he approached to the Altars on the like performance, the great Council did reclamare, and would not suffer him to be sworn, of whose Faith and Veracity the Gods and Men were so fully persuaded.  
Nor are the Archives of our Senate destitute of Examples, which, being nearer allied to our Case, are beyond Exception. Among these (that I may omit the dispensation which was lately afforded to the Quakers) we have a proper instance in the Reign of the last King Charles, when, notwithstanding all the Tests, Oaths, and declaratory Provisions which were in true Prudence enjoined, in order to our Security against the encroachments of the Court of Rome, and the design of her busy Emissaries, Mr. John Huddleston, for one approved act of Loyalty, was excused the Obligation, and discharged the Penalties of the Statute.  
And therefore since in this World there is no exact perfection in the greatest Councils (the most important Affairs of State being sometimes performed in such Rapid and Critical haste that 'tis impossible to consult every particular Circumstance) we readily acknowledge that if the Convention had among their many other serious and mature Performances copied out any thing in favour to the Bishops, as they would have introduced no new Custom, so had we not been at the Labour of an Address: I could add more; but I choose rather to take up with the Rule prescribed by a great Casuist (another learned Prelate of the Church) 
* Bishop Tailor's Rule and Exercise of holy Living, Ch. p. 3.5.10.  who tells us, That we must not be too easy in examining the Prudence and Unreasonableness of human Laws: for althô we are not bound to believe them all to be the wisest, yet if by enquiring into the lawfulness of them, or by any other Instrument we find them to fail of that Wisdom with which some others are ordained; yet we must never make use of it to disparage the Persons of the Lawgiver or to countenance any Man's disobedience. I am sure our Holy Fathers the Bishops are of the same Opinion: I shall therefore endeavour to apply our Proceed, and our Address to the same Topick.  
The Address in few words was no other, than the return of our Thanks to His Majesty for his repeated Assurances to maintain our Religion as by Law Established, and for his Gracious Resolution to Grant to all his Subjects (except such as in his Princely Wisdom he should distinguish from the rest) his Gracious Pardon: And we humbly prayed, that the like favour might be extended to our Pious Bishops particularly our Diocesan, that the incapacity they were then under by not taking the Oaths, might no longer disable them from serving Their Majesties in their several Provinces.  
It contained great deference to the King's Royal Person, Charity to the distressed, Malice against none; much less can it be arraigned as a breach of the Law, or deserve the Character, that some hot Spirits have fixed upon it, as the product of a Papistical and factious Zeal. In the discovery of this Truth, I do appeal from the lofty Tribunal of our rash Critics, and bespeak the sober Judgement of the honest and impartial Reader.  
We therefore in the first place own, that we gave the public testimony of our Thanks to the King, for his support of that Religion, in the defence of which Cranmer, and the other mitred Martyrs spent their precious Blood: to which a Virgin Queen was solemnly espoused, and of which our Suffering Bishops have made a good Confession. Sure I am, the Church of Rome hath the only cause to be sensibly touched and tormented at this Reflection; nor can I judge but that the moderate Dissenters do, in some measure, congratulate with us: For though many of our homebred Pharisees did stiffly presume, that after the Ruin of our Establishment, they should flourish under the Pope's Influence, and gain strange Advantages to the Protestant Faith from their new Patron; yet their golden Hopes had put a notorious Cheat upon them. Those Temporizers would have obtained no better Lot, than what befell the crooked Camel in the Fable, who, being Heaven's Favourite, petitioned the Gods for Horns; but Jupiter deriding his Pretence, croped his Ears, and made him ever after bare the Mark of his Presumption in a sanctified Dress. The Moral is obvious, and needs no Explanation.  
We thought it also not unbecoming the Exercise of our Duty, to thank his Majesty for a Pardon he designed his Subjects; yea, we did not exclude the trimming Latitudinarians of the last Reign; for we suppose their Consciences have sufficiently chastised their evil Extravagance. Neither did we except against the other violent and brutish Addressors, from whom King James received the like Homage, which was paid to Mercury by the Heathen Sleepers, viz. a Sacrifice of the Tongues of Beasts. We insulted no Faction; but calmly considered the Favour of our Prince; and since an Amnesty was so seasonably tendered by him, we conceived it would not have been construed in a vile Sense, to desire his Majesty to include our Diocesan in the same Grace, and to render some of the best Men in the World capable of his Service.  
But in the Progress I now take, I must be so just, as to satisfy the most plausible Objection that thwarts our Proceeding. Our Adversaries contend, that for as much as our Case was already concluded by a positive Law (a Statute having past a legal Disability and Suspension upon the Bishops) the King must not be persuaded to break through the Obligation of an Act of Parliament, the Consequence of which would be destructive of our Liberties, and again exalt the exploded Idol of Arbitrary Power. To this specious Offer, we answer in the following Terms.  
First, We do observe, that our Address was penned in the Session of Parliament, and therefore it cannot with reason be supposed we would incur the Displeasure of that August Body.  
In the next Place it is apparent, that we designed to thank his Majesty for no other Pardon, than what he himself intended and prepared. And was it not proposed by him to the two Houses, with an Assurance they would pass it, and that it should derive a just Solemnity from their Consent? On this Account our Address was the irreprovable Witness of our Sincerity; for after the King had discovered his gracious Intentions to them, we paid our Tribute of Gratitude to the Royal Favour, and desired him to extend the common Privilege of his Mercy to our pious (though suffering) Bishops. Certainly if this be Criminal, or destructive either of God's Honour, or the Liberties of Human Society, there is neither Justice on Earth, nor Truth in Heaven; for Virtue and Vice have lost their Names.  
If our Adversaries are not yet satisfied, but in the Burden of their irreconcilable Animosity against our Prelates, still say (as I have often heard them maintain) that it would have been more agreeable to the Usage of Parliament, if one or both the Houses had first prepared and passed a Bill in Favor of the Bishops, than that such an important Repeal should begin with his Majesty, and descend to their Consideration, as from the Authority and Force of his Will, and that therefore our Address ought rather to have been dedicated either to the Lords or Commons, than to the King. I must take the Liberty to assure the Managers of this bold, but impertinent Cavil, that they fail not of their usual Levity, discovering as their gross Ignorance in the Customs of our Nation, which entitle the King to be the Fountain of all Acts of Grace, so likewise their profound Respects to his Majesty; for by the Consequence of their Words, they declare that the Duty and Intercourse between the Prince and People ought not to be reciprocal. I need not tell them that neither of those honourable Houses had at that time given us the Cause (I speak with respect to the first Dispatch and Draught of the general Pardon) to return them those peculiar Thanks which made up the principal Frame of our Application to the King, and that for this Reason they could not be the suitable and adequate Object of our Address; but I answer, that we addressed his Majesty in Parliament, because he there challenges a supereminent Power; and therefore, if during the Session, it is permitted to any private Person to petition either the Lords or Commons for a particular Redress; shall it be accounted heinous, that the Grand-jury, who represented the Body of the County, and faithfully delivered the true Sense and Desire of their Vicinage, should make their humble Approaches to the King, who is the Sovereign Head, and supreme Intendant of our Parliament? This is in effect to declare that his Majesty hath a Chair of State placed in the House, on no other account, than that he may be curtailed in Stature, and appear less considerable than his many Servants who attend him.  
Should any Diet or Parliament in Christendom pursue the Latitude of this Doctrine, and therefore refuse to attend a most Religious and Solemn Enterprise, because the Prince doth first propose it to them; they would be justly censured very positive and supercilious in their Determinations. Examples of that Nature are very rare in welldisciplined Commonwealths, and I know but one that doth exactly square to the Proceeding, and this is related by 
* Euseb. Histor. Eccles. l. 2. c. 2.  Eusebius, out of an ancient Father of the Church, and was a strange Violence against the standing Law of Moderation in great Councils, the Story in short is to this effect.  
After our Saviour's Manifestation among the Sons of Men, to whom, by the exemplary Conduct of his triumphant Resurrection from the Dead, he gave the most undeniable Proofs of his Divinity: Tiberius, in whose Time the Christian Name made its entry into the World, communicated to the Senate an Account he had received out of Syria Palestine of this great Affair; and having given his own Suffrage to Christ's Divinity, he desired them to enact it into a Decree, and to register him in the Catalogue of the Gods: But the lofty Senate disdaining to be instructed in a Business which concerned the Exercise of their own Power, rejected Caesar's Motion, and would not place our Saviour in their Festival Calendar, because they had not first approved the Matter, before the Emperor persuaded them to it. This you may say was a brisk Maintenance of Privilege against the Torrent of Prerogative; and I must I confess admit it, but in a Sense that takes away the Authority, not only from the Person, but from the Doctrine of our Saviour, and seems to render unto the People the things which are Caesar's, and unto Satan the things which are Gods: and I hope the Example will have no tolerable Sway in the Christian World.  
It is our Comfort that the English Parliament (though they have a just Pretence to a great Power, in conjunction with their Prince) do not affect such an unseasonable Grandeur which would disappoint the Success of his Majesty's Piety. So that what Monsieur Talôn speaks in Flattery of the aspiring Lewis, we may conclude most true of King William; that to our August Monarch nothing is impossible, especially when he endeavours the Intersts of Heaven: I am sure his Favour to the Bishops will not lead him out of the way thither.  
The Kings of England (and this the express Words of their Coronation Oath contain) are invested with a Power to execute Justice in Mercy, and as they carry an High Court of Chancery in their Breasts, so may they by their indulgent Grace, and especial Favour, abate some rigorous Extremities of the Law. This has ever been one of the Flowers of their Prerogative, to which no others can pretend, and it is as truly annexed to their Crown, as the Royal Dignity to their Persons. This Power hath been often exerted by them in a various manner, when the Necessities of State, or their own Royal Pleasure required it; but it is then rendered more conspicuous, when it is published for the common Benefit and Security of the Nation, and does, in order to the quieting the Minds of the Subjects, dispense with the Frailties, Errors, and Miscarriages of the People. Such an important Grant of Clemency is capable of a twofold Management: for when the Prince doth design a general Amnesty, he sometimes issues forth his gracious Declaration of Free Pardon; or, if he Judges it more necessary and expedient, or more agreeable to some weighty Circumstances, he recommends the Affair to the Consideration of his Parliament, which in most submissive Terms doth either propose a Bill to his Royal Assent, or else receives a Draught of Pardon from him with such Ceremony as is expressive of their Gratitude. This latter Method hath been used by his present Majesty, and by the whole Proceeding our Adversaries may be soon convinced what an Authority the Sovereign bears in the two Houses. For when some Lords, who were excepted in the Act of Grace, did move in Parliament that they might be heard by their Council, in order to give their Reasons why they should partake of the Benefit of the Act, their Motion was not approved, nor was their Request allowed them. I must not presume to render the Reasons which prevailed with the Honourable House to dismiss their Petition, having not had the Opportunity to examine the Records; but I suppose, from the Information I have casually received from judicious Persons, that those Noble Peers did not petition in the regular, direct and customary Order: for his Majesty (who best understood his own Resolutions) sent down his Pardon to the Lords House, not to be altered or enlarged, but to be passed into a Law; so that the Petitioners ought, in that case, to have addressed the King, who, as he is the Life of Justice, so is he the Fountain of Mercy.  
I cannot therefore but pity the extreme Weakness of their Judgements, who pretend to maintain, that our Grand jury did not pursue a right Course, when they made their Application to the King in the Behalf of the Bishops; for, by this Assertion, they seem to bare no Regard to the Authority of Precedents, but speak against the Voice of our Laws, the Prerogative of our Prince, and the true Liberty of the Subject. We could address no other Person, we could gain Relief from no other Place; the King alone could grant our Request, who might have been sensible of the Desires of his faithful People, had not evil Men slandered us, and misrepresented our Design: but to proceed.  
As many of those Gentlemen, who disparage the Conduct of our Zeal, challenge us for an Insult upon the Laws; so others scruple not with open Mouth to tell us, that we should not on any Account have petitioned for Bishops, that Title being as odious to them, as was Hannibal's Name to the Roman Matrons. In this Hatred they are fixed by the prevailing Authority of Education and Prejudice, and their spiritual Directors carefully improve those Maxims, with which their early Judgements were possessed. Among them Lewis du Moulin hath furnished his Disciples with Invectives against the sacred Function out of the Writings of a learned Man, whom he calls one of the sincerest Persons in the World (though he confesses if Mr. Baxter be in an Error, he is the greatest of Liars.) 
* Moulin's short and true Account of the Advances of the Church of England towards Rome, P. 64. etc.  The Episcopacy of the Church of England, saith he, is absolutely contrary to the Holy Scriptures, and the Practice of the Primitive Church: It is not compatible with the Peace of the Church, nor with the Civil State. It is the Cause of all the Sects, all the Heresies and of all the Schisms and Divisions which have rend and torn and infected England for above this hundred Years, banishing all likelihood of Reformation in Religion and good Manners. That it shuts the Door against the Entrance of the Doctrine and Discipline of Jesus Christ, letting lose the Reins to all Debaucheries, Intemperance, Luxury and Idleness, making the Pastor's lazy in the Discharge of their Ministry, fomenting Ignorance, hatred of Piety, Plurality of Benefices. That it is a Government that divests the Pastors of Parishes of the Authority to exercise the Discipline of Jesus Christ, to invest the secular Persons with it, breaking the Union of the Churches of England with those beyond Sea, and gratifying the Enemy of our Salvation, and Persons of a sensual and depraved Life. This is the Language of the Man whom our Author calls the sincere, and he does well deserve that Character; for he hath delivered the true Idea of his Thoughts to us. And indeed if Episcopacy were of such a monstrous and Antichristian Composure, and did it carry such a Wolf in its Back as this old Angry Divine would persuade us, an Address in Favor of the Bishops had entitled us to a severe Chastisement. I need not intermeddle with the Merit of those Allegations with which that luxurious Writer bespatters the Order and Succession of our Church; but I beg leave to follow Monsieur Moulin himself in the full Stretches of his own Argument, and shame his Party by giving them a Repetition of his Words.  
The Reader therefore is to be informed, that in the Judgement of this unerring 
* Idem. p. 63. 65.  Rabbin, Dr. Tillotson is a Reverend and Learned Man; that Dr. Floyd and the Canon of the Chapter, of which Dr. Tillotson is the Dean, have done good Service by their Labours against Popery. That all the Three are every where extremely valued and honoured by the best Judges, and the holiest Men, and that they live in the high Reputation of being eminently Learned and pious. These are the Expressions of the double faced Janus in one place of his Book, but in the reverse Page, he seems much afflicted that these Doctors have vindicated our Bishops, and the Frame of our Discipline, and for this Reason he compares them to those who made Panegirics on the Bloody Busiris, the Tyrant Nero and the Tertian Ague. That it is with these three great Divines, as with Anselm, Ives, and John of Salisbury, who by the Reputation of their extraordinary piety, have established more strongly the Perpetuity of the Pope's Empire, than all the Diabolical Instruments of Gregory the Seventh, Innocentius the Third and Fourth, and Boniface the Eighth.  
The Monsieur is justly allowed his Pretence to an Insight in the Affairs of Church History; for he managed his Conduct by the Authority of a great and leading Example, treating our Doctors in the same Style, with which the primitive Christians were entertained at Rome, Caius Scius, as the old learned Apologist Writes, was esteemed as good and as righteous a Man as any in that City, but he was therefore declared wicked by a pubilc Outcry, because he professed Christianity: And by the same Analogy Dr. Tillotson and his Reverend Brethren, after they had been acknowledged to be Angels of light, were soon transformed into Instruments of darkness, because they asserted the Power and Jurisdiction of Christian Prelacy: and if our Doctors are thus sentenced by the ill natured Minister, what mercy can our Bishops expect from the Tongues of his violent Party? Our Diocesan hath been often allowed to have done glorious Exploits (and his expense of Labour and Gold in the ransom of Christian Slaves, and his hazards in the Rescue of others from Turkish Tyranny speak him a great Man) but yet he is no Christian in the New Catalogue, because he is a Bishop. Our holy Primate (and this his loudest Enemies confess) is a Person of stupendious Gifts and admirable Piety, and is most Serpahic in the Austerities of his Life; but he is therefore thought unworthy his Majesty's Grace because he is a Bishop. In this Current and Channel doth Lewis du Moulin lead us, and it is no wonder his Votaries will not subscribe to a Pardon for our Prelates, who were the times answerable to their Wishes would blot out the Names of their Persons, and pull down the Establishment of their Order.  
I have often wished that those who assume the name of Protestants, and by their great English Patriarch are Styled the Sober and Selfdenying Men, had not in their Practice maintained what he the sincere Person has delivered in Thesi. It would have conduced much to their Reputation, had they been led by the sweet and Angelic Spirit of Calvin, to which though they do in a large Sense pretend, yet they never studied that part of Christian Imitation. I am sure they have lost their Credit among all good Protestants, nor has their Conduct been pleasing to the Lutheran, Huguenot and the Evangelical Churches; for when our Dissenting Brethren enjoyed a full swinge of Liberty by the Toleration in the late Reign, many of them could not bare the equal prosperity of our Church and of our Bishops, but rather than not ruin both, they could for once allow Satan their help to raise the Superstructure of his Kingdom. I am unwilling to enlarge on what I before purposely avoided, or at least but lightly touched; but their unpardonable iniquity cannot be concealed in this place. I suppose they remember the Traffic they held with the Court, when they accepted an Equivalent, and engaged by stipulation to assist the common Enemy of Protestants in the Subversion of the best reformed Church in the World. This in plain Truth was the pregnant Impulse, that gave breath to many of the fulsome Addresses presented by that numerous. Party to the King, and raised their Spiritual Fury to such a Degree, as readily to dispense with the Fanaticism of the Church of Rome, on condition that what they called the Popery of the Church of England might tumble to the Ground. Thus were they content to have seen the Abomination of a cursed Aelia set up over our Archbishop's Gate, to have seen the Pope's Warehouse opened in our Ecclesiastical Courts, to have seen Nuntiös Apostolic whipping Heresy out of our Chapels; to have seen the Separatists cherished by Royal Favour, and the Church of England alone dismantled of all her Privileges. O the Religion, O the patience of the pretended Saints, who to revenge an old quarrel could so tamely permit the Roman Managers to mingle their Tiber in our Thames, and to make Lambeth the Faubourg of their Lateran Palace.  
I suppose all honest and judicious Men are by this example sufficiently satisfied, that the Practices of some Men are agreeable to their Writings; and that what was at first thought a difference in mere Ceremony, is changed into a mortal Feud. I would to God, these Men had bid Adieu to ill Nature under the kind influence of our present Government; but alas! the same Doctrine is still carefully conveyed from the Pulpit to the People's Ears, and from their lofty Oracle you may hear long Prayers for the confusion of Prelacy. How may it therefore with reason be supposed, that these forward Enthusiasts can have any tolerable Charity for our Diocesan, and our other Bishops, or any Favourable regard to those that undertake their Defence, who think it their Duty to Preach, to cry aloud, and to act violently against their very Order and Function? They love not a Bishop be he ever so good; they pity not a Bishop be he ever so afflicted; they envy those Bishops that do conform, and they rejoice at their Calamity who are Suspended.  
It is now (I confess) high time to draw to a conclusion, but before I do it I am obliged, though not without some reluctancy of mind, to direct a few more Words to these very Men on a Subject, in which I had rather be excused with silence, for since the same oppugners of our Prelates are (for a certain grand Reason well known to themselves, but which I shall studiously at present conceal) much averse to the Suspended Bishops, because they maintain the Doctrine of Non resistance, and Passive-Obedience; I entreat the Readers Patience to attend me, whilst I endeavour to vindicate the Good Fathers in this one distinguishing Principle and Character of our English Church.  
And therefore although to carnal and worldly Reason (which respects more nicely the cadence and congruity of Words, than the sincerity of Actions) Passive-Obedience may sound as harsh, and inconsistent as Passive-resistance; yet the wholesome Doctrine which is couched under those significant Terms is not so tamely to be hissed off the Stage. We have an Authentic Nomenclature in the New Testament, where we find the Words registered both in the same expressive language, and in the like Sense; and we have there a great Example, who was an exact Copy of the Doctrine, and patiently permitted wicked Men to draw the literal Characters of it in large Capitals upon him. For if we trace our dear Saviour from his Temptation in the Wilderness to his Agonies in the Garden, and from thence through the other dark scene of horrors to his Crucifixion, we shall find, that his Command of more than Twelve Legions of Angels could not prevail with him to attempt his Security by the Thunder of and Force against the rude insolences of barbarous Sinners. The Author to the Hebrews tells us that though Christ was the Son of God yet be learned, patience by the things he suffered; Heb. c. 5. v. 8. and St. Paul affirms to the Ephesians that the holy Jesus became Obedient unto the death, even to the death of the Cross Chap. 12. v. 8. which two Texts of Scripture do give a sufficient Authority to Passive Obedience and to the very Letter of the Expression. We read also in St. Peter's, first Epistle c. 2. v. 23. that when our Saviour was reviled he reviled not again, that when he suffered he threatened not, but committed himself to him who judgeth righteously. From which as also from many other passages of Holy Scripture the Doctrine of Nonresistance is fully cleared as a duty necessarily incumbent on the Practices of true Christians, especially since the same St. Peter (whose indstruction are a general Rule to all Ages) assures us in the same place, that Christ suffered for our Example that we should follow his steps. Now what is proposed for our Example I am sure is for our imitation; and if we imitate our Saviour in his patiented suffering, I know what consequence will be from hence naturally inferred. I cannot therefore but tremble at the blaphemy of those wretched Men, who have so far Shipwrecked their Faith and a good Conscience as to expose and ridicule the most Divine and Apostolical Truths, by affirming that this Doctrine ought no longer to be maintained in the Schools, in the State, or in the Church. We may on better Grounds conclude, that those who in the pressure of Persecutions are not of the sweet temper of a divine Resignation, and who cannot bare their afflictions without murmuring against the appointments of God's Providence, and without loud Clamours and revile against the Men who oppress them, can never pretend to the name of Christians, much less can they be entitled to the merit of Confessors, or to the glory of Martyrdom. Their whole Man must be employed in the Service of their God; their Soul with its Faculties, Powers, and Will, as well as the bodily Members must concur and cooperate in so Divine a Work. For Passive-Obedience (in property of Speech) does imply the Sacrifice of the mind, and Nonresistance is a blessed effect wrought on the outward Man, which, by a true and sanctify'd mortification, is dead unto all worldly Cares and Interests, and moves by no other passion then that of Heavenly Love, and unlimited Charity. Of this serene Temper was the good St. Stephen, who did not render evil for evil, and railing for railing; nor did he desire from God that the Stones might rebound from him upon his Enemies; but he interceded for his Persecutors that the sin might not be laid to their charge. Let us trace the Christians in the first Century's, and we shall find the same  Principle and Spirit reigning among them. They did not therefore suffer because they had no Force and Power to resist, as some of our false Brethren in compliance with the Jesuits Doctrine do maliciously insinuate, but they often cast off the Soldier's Coat to wear the Livery of their Saviour, and delivered up their own Swords to the Use and Service of their Executioners.  
I must not be thought by the tendency of my discourse to enervate the Minds and Spirits of Christians, and to recommend Cowardice as an Article of Faith. I desire no such interpretation may be made of my Words: for I know, that we must not only suffer, but also plead for righteousness sake; for as every Man is obliged by virtue of his being in a Society (whether it relates to the Church or the the State) not to consent to any thing which tends to the apparent ruin of it, but to refuse all such Acts for the sake and general end of the Society; so would a compliance with a sinful Command be in effect a disobedience to the Power that Commands, and to the Authority itself when stated and considered. And therefore if the Magistrate Commands any thing contrary to natural and revealed Religion, or destructive of the Fundamental Laws of the State or Church we may rescribere Principi; we may calmly advise him of the irreconcilable difference between his Precept and our Duty, between his pleasure and voice of our conscience, between his Will and the more indispensable obligation of God's Word or the dictates of morality. And if he is not satisfied with such Remonstrations, we may Petition, Address, and humbly entreat him to supersede his Resolutions, but if he yet remain peremptory in his Demands, we must obey him by suffering, and apply ourselves to the Christian warfare of Prayers and Tears. God in such a case hath reserved all Remedies to be expected by an Appeal to his own judgement Seat, for he has said that vengeance is his, and that he will repay it; and as he is jealous of his Honour, so will he not suffer any to go unpunished, who Usurp upon his Province, and presume to forestall his final retribution. By these considerations were our suspended Bishops led under their Afflictions in the last Reign, and God, who is the rewarder of Innocence, was pleased to Crown their constancy with a success far above our languishing hopes, and the prospect of a faint Expectation.  
I cannot therefore but strangely wonder why some Persons who speak irreverently of the same Prelates, and writ invectives against them, do at this time accuse them because they are passively obedient, and resolve not to resist. Are they desirous the good Fathers should encourage their many Friends to rise in Arms on their Account? Would this be for the Security of the Nation? Or is this the way to establish Peace and Union among us; I may assure those troublers of our Israel, that our Bishops know not how to blow the Trumpet for such an Alarm; long aliud sonat tuba Evangelica aliud concha Panis, aut cornu Alectûs. If his Majesty (with respect to their modesty and moderation) would be pleased in a Parliament way to reinstate them in their former Capacities he would not hazard the Security of his Throne or the Glory of his Name. I am certain he would purchase as much Honour by this one Act of Piety, as he has gained by the Atchieument of his Arms, when he passed the Boyn, and waded through the other difficulties of War. But if they must be still chained to a suspension, they will be also chained to Passive-Obedience and Nonresistance, let the World cast what censures it please upon them. I confess many others (and those the great Enemies of this avowed Principle of the Bishops) have formerly on many occasions taken the liberty to disturb the Peace of our Government, and yet Mercy has been passively obedient to them; but I leave them and their Party to another Tribunal where the proudest and most incorrigible Spirits must, in a more dreadful Sense, pay a Passive-Obedience to the scourge of infinite Justice.  
In the mean time it is our comfort, that the good hand of Providence doth overrule the Affairs of this World, and that these furious and Antichristian Men have not the Effect of their Clamours granted them: but that the Sober and the Religious Gentlemen of our Nation do neither join with their interests, nor expect their success; to these therefore I shall seriously apply myself in a few Words.  
I would desire them to consider with me the apparent Advantages our Enemies reap from the present Suspension. How joyfully was the News entertained in the Pope's Palace and in the College of Cardinals? with what triumph and surprising Pleasure did the General of the Jesuits receive the Express? how do they deride the fickle instability of our People, who were so fond of the Bishops under the last Reign, and seem now as violent against them? The Subtle Missionary (who loves to breath in the midst of Tempests and Whirlwinds) takes occasion from hence to persuade the Friends of our Church that our Hierarchy is endangered, and that the Suspended Bishops must expect little Relief since their very order is not altogether pleasing. What is become, cries he, of the old plausible Text of Liberty, of Privileges, and of Conscience? Where is the comfortable and long expected Amnesty, or at least the equal and just Administration, when scandalous Sinners are exalted to a degree of of Eminence, when Outlaws, Pedlars of Perjury, and Mountebanks of Treason are favoured with a Pardon, and the holy, the Orthodox and Learned are discharged the hopes and benefit of that Grace? On the other hand the same Underminer of our Peace does insinuate to the Dissenter (whose readiness to comply with his late proposed Equivalent renders him an apt Subject for his further delusions) that now is the time to appear rampant, to cry strongly against Episcopal Grandeur, and to beat down the Fabric of our Church, our Doctors and Prelates being so variously divided in their present Sentiments. To some he suggests, that our Church doth suffer too much by this procedure, and that the whole Kingdom ought to be violent in their Demands for the Bishop's Honour; but he assures others that our Church suffers too little, and must be yet chastised after the dreadful Model of the Scorish Reformation. Thus we see with what Topics the Ignatian Order is furnished to widen the Differences among Protestants, and to blow up the flame of our wretched Discontents and Passions: for as it is their sport and pleasure to embroil us; so is it their Interest carefully to maintain those Heats and Animosities which feed their own hopes and forward our destruction; and I know no better Method to disappoint the Artifice, then to dare for once to be Christians, and to love one another with true Charity and Compassion; which we cannot be said to do, unless we renounce all savage and brutish Malice. If we seriously study this peaceable Temper, the Suspended Bishops will not be long bereaved of their Places; but may be admitted to a share in that common Concern and Benefit of English Men as will render them serviceable to His Majesty, and useful in their Generations. Sure I am, this was the true Design of our Grand-Jury's Petition, and this was the plain and naked Sense of the dangerous Paper, that has been so violently proclaimed against by some Men, who love to be thought great at Court, where they would  all the rest of Mankind, and themselves also, did not the eloven Foot discover their deformity.  
And now having briefly vindicated the Title of our Address, and the Errand upon which we dispatched it, I shall drop some words, and those but a few, in answer to that other immodest Calumny, which styled us a factious Party. And here, as I am not permitted to be a compotent Judge in the Case, so neither will I allow the Testimony of our Opponents to the Truth of what they maintain, but we will appeal to an Authentic Umpirage and be determined by it. Tertullian; a most learned Civilian in the Opinion of the best Masters, hath left these words to Meditation. 
* Tertul. Apol. advers. Gentes, cap. 39  Illis nomen Factionis accommodatum est, qui in odium bonorum & proborum conspirant, qui adversus sanguinem innocentium conclamant. They merit says he, the name of a Faction who conspire in Malice against good and just Men, and with loud outcries demand their Blood. Which description is very apt and significant, and to it agrees the Grammatical Interpretation which Scaliger gives us of the same word, who writes, that a Faction is busied circa inimica studia. By these settled and approved Rules we may, salvo. jure, conjecture, that much wickedness conceived in the Cabinet of the Cabal, and as professed Iniquity in the Actions of their Party, afford fit Ingredients to make up the Character. Corah and his Company, Achitophel and his Convention, Caiaphas with his Sanhedrim were in this Sense Factious and Turbulent Men; otherwise Moses, David, and the Holy Jesus would be rob of the Authority that is due to their Innocence. If our Adversaries then will declare us liable to the same Imputation, they must first prove, that our appearance in the Bishop's Cause, was a designed Conspiracy against Righteousness and Peace, and if they dare confront us with this Libellous Assertion, I will say, they have hardened not only their Consciences, but also their Tongues against the Impressions of Truth. Certainly these busy Critics ought in good Manners to pay a better Respect, if not to our Persons, yet to the Quality of our Office: for we held no Club distinct from the appointments of Custom; but we met together to consult the Peace of our Country, and to prepare Matters for the solemn Proceed of Justice, and for the regular Execution of the Laws: And if we are accounted a Faction for freely speaking the Sense of our Neighbours, and for doing our other Duty in the King's Service, the Authority of the Government is called in question, and we may esteem the honourable Judge to have been the Ringleader of our Sect. If the Clamorous Gentlemen are not yet satisfied in the present Notion with which I endeavour to correct the bitterness of their Judgements, or if they desire to be more fully informed what the Nature and Tyranny of a Faction is, I will for their further Improvement direct them to an exact and perfect Mirror, in which perhaps they may see their own faces.  
I suppose they remember the days of old, when the pretended Saints (holding their solemn Councils at 
* This Expression is borrowed from Mr. Milton who lost his Eyes in his Zeal for those times.  Pandaemonium the High Capitol of the Usurper and his Peers) studied the Ruin of the best of Kings, and plotted the dismal and black Tragedy, which was acted in our Church. These were inimica studia in odium bonorum proborum & innocentium. Then was the Use and Exercise of the Mitre suspended, the Bonnet was advanced over the Crown, and Sceptres was subjected to the Flail. The libraries of the Holy Usher and other Learned Men were ransacked by base Plagiaries, and our most celebrated Scholars were reduced to such straits, that they lived (according to Dr. Prideauxes Language) upon their Books and their Hang, being necessitated to expose them to an uncomfortable huxstry for their Support. Our Bishops were Imprisoned, Sequestered, Banished, and the name Malignant, that as one observes) is attributed but once in the whole Bible to the Devil, was affixed by accursed Hypocrites on the suffering Party. In their Mint were our present and past Calamities coined, they stamped Wrinkles on our Brow, and tried us like Gold in the Furnace of Affliction. Those precious Sons of Zion (for in that Name they gloryed) perfected a Reformation according to Mr. Sedgwick's Scheme, who in a fast Sermon before the Commons assured them, that they ought in the performance to expect 
* Zion's delive. Anno, 1642. p. 11.  Earthquakes, Church-quakes and Kingdom-quakes. To conclude; though the furious Priests persuaded the People against Organs in the Church yet they had their own peculiar Music, even of that Hellish Composure, which 
* Habet & mundus Organasua, sed quae infernè reddunt sonitum inamabilem. Quid enim loquitur ira fides? ulciscere, spolia ejice, occide. Quid sonet Ambitionis nervus? dilata ditionem, nec Juris jurandi aut pietatis sit ratio, quoties agitur de imperio. Quid erepit Auaritiae chorda? vides nemini bene esse nisi qui plurimum possides, per fas nefasque congere, rape, serva, etc. Haec nimirum est mundi Musica.— Sic pessomam barn oriam reddit Livoris & Obtrectationis Chorda, etc. his modis aebrii, lymphatique sic belligeramur, tumultuamur, ambimus. rapimus, irascimur, mordemus invicem ac mordemur. Erasm. Epist. ad Adrian. Pontif. Praefix. Arnob. Comment. in Psalm.  Erasmus on a like sorrowful occasion describes to us, that entertained the Age with the dire infernal Sound of War, Rapine, Ambition, Avarice, Perjury, Tumult and Blood.  
This was a Faction in terrible earnest, and I hope the Spawn of that Party will no longer torment us with their own Title, lest we spare neither Paint, nor Labour to describe them more fully to the World.  
FINIS.