CHAP. I.

IT is no Surprise that our Examiner, to dispose unwary men to purchase his Book, should dawb the Pillars and the Gates of our Churches, and presume to affix the Titles of his Libel there, when he had with the same unhallowed hands, thrown his dirt into the Temple it self: For at the very time that he pretends to represent Truth to us, he joyns her in Mar­riage with his own Profaneness; and thinks it no breach, either of Law, or of Gospel, to plead unrighteously for God. If he had not given us the Honour of knowing he is a Clergyman of the Church of England, from whom Car-mens Railery, and other lewd Language could not reasonably have been expected, we might have thought him one of the Family of the Old A [...]h [...]nian Priests, who serv'd at the Altars of the two Famous Deities, Calumny and Impudence; and yet if we admit his Pretence to Holy Orders, we must [...]llow our Levite to have bin inverst since he breath'd forth an ample Discovery of an i [...]ward blackness.

I am sure he never learn't his Theatrical Dialect from the Holy Apostles, to whose Directions, Clergymen (of all others) are more especially obliged: No instruction without the Spirit of Meekness; no Uncharitable Surmise, or false Accusation do's bear a part on the Sacred File; and therefore I know not how our New-stampt Clergy-man can reconcile a continued Series of Sp [...]ght and Malice, that abounds in his Pamphlet with such serious Texts, unless he first place deformed Envy among the Christian Graces.

In truth, he seems rather to have practis'd according to the prescriptions of Galen, than to the Rules of St. Paul; and the Physical Dose did such Violence to him, that 'tis no wonder he complain'd in one of his Pages, that he was weary of the Operation; for after a full Vomit, his Malady fell downwards; and I fear the Jallap left him in no good Case.

Our other Author, who has oblig'd the Age with his Reflections, did I con­fess, pretend great Friendship and good Humor: But in bestowing the Cour­tesy, he usually interlaced some Digressions; which, as they betray'd the genuine temper of his mind, so did they discover him to be not altogether exempt from the frailty of being inveterate.

Nor was he content to confine his passions within the compass of his Book; but we find a Golden Legend, à tergo Scripta, where he delivers matters of es­pecial Moment: For instead of an Advertisement, to discover what Lap-dogs are lost, what Canary-Birds are lately Arrived, or what other Pamphlets the Re­nowned Authors of the Modest Enquiry, and their Brethren of the Quill have put forth for Ghostly Instruction (this being a Customary supply to Mercurial Writers, when their Stock of Fancy is Exhausted) he hath by the grave ad­vice of the Publisher recommended a Postscript to us, that resolves it self into the following Interpretation (1.) That Gentlemen (tho it seems to be of hard Digestion to him) usually serve upon Grand-juries (2.) That as no Clergy­man was the Author of the Address, so neither of the Apology (3.) That he himself, if he be a Gentleman, is none of the best Christians, being guilty of that very Scurrility, which he pretends to Condemn in others. He tells me, that some particular passages in the Apology, which toucht the Rampant Ini­quity of Barbarous Regicides and of other Bloody and Hypocritical Men, were the product of my own evil self, and not of the Spirit of God, who is the Spi­rit of Love and Peace. This Lecture was, I confess, an home-push, and I thought at first sight, it would have brought me to the Reflecters stool of Re­pentance: But after I had duly considered the Charge, I had no reason to be Surprised at the Malevolence of the Censure, especially since our Reflecter, to represent me as an ill Man, has thought it advisable to Rob an Old Popish Author of a Canting Expression. For Cochloeus in his Letter to the Wormacian Dyet, in which he represents the best Men as the Enemies of God, tells them, That Martin Bucer, to whose singular qualifications, neither the Reflecter nor my self, must dare to pretend, was guided fraude sui Spiritus qui utique non pacis sed diss [...]ntionis esse solebat, &c. I would desire our Author, if not to com­pare the impertinence of that unchristian Allegation, with the Stuff he has published against me, yet at least to reflect on his own hard words; and so I proceed to consider the exceptions which our two Adversaries have laid down, not only against the proceedings of our Grand-jury, but against the Doctrine of Humanity, and the Discipline of our Church; against all our Bishops in general, and the Sentiments of our best Doctors, who have with due Confor­mity, comply'd with the late Oaths. I shall begin with their unfair dealing with us, which is at [...]ended with so many spightful Remarks, such jealousies and foul suspicious, that I believe the Authors had a mind to set up for none of the honestest or best natur'd Men in the World. And though it may be in vain to offer them a Remedy to Cure their prejudice; Yet I shall endeavour to prevent [...]he inveterate disease from infecting others.

In the first place, I am obliged to inform you, that every person save one of our Grand-jury, signed the Address, and that no disrespectful words passed between the Dissenters and us: For as the Honourable Judge was pleas'd on all [Page 3] occasions to distinguish us from Common Tipstaves, and the other inferior At­tendants of the Court, with a Title to which the Publisher of the Reflections cannot (without some Mortification to his grinning Modesty) be reconcil'd; so were we very sensible of the import of that name, and have entertain'd a generous Opinion of our Brother. Nor could I observe he then decla [...]'d a pub­lick Resentment of us. If he has at his leisure acted in a different strain▪ I am sure we gave him no just occasion to be uncharitable. I have one thing to of­fer, which manifested our Agreement in a main point, and prov'd our resolv'd concurrence against our Common Enemy: For our Presentment, wh [...]ch we lodg'd in the Court, as it pass'd by our General Vote; so were it Transcrib'd by other Grand-juries, and manag'd with prudence, and pursued with Cou­rage, it would soon discover the private recesses of Jesuits, and disappoint the frequency of their Cabals.

I must in this place, beg leave to remind the Reflecter of a wilful mistake of his; which as it is a Treacherous Imposing on his Reader, so I shall in a few words discover the pleasant Transport he gives out in his Title page, That his Book contains a Vindication of those who refused to Subscribe the Petition; this is a bold stroke, and the words imply, that a certain number refus'd: But how he could imagine that this could square with matter of [...]act, or gain En­tertainment with serious Men, I know not; except we allow the Author to be a person of unaccountable Raptures, and amidst his extraordinary Specula­tions, to have retired from Reason and Sence.

However, 'tis very diverting to consider with what Artifice he do's improve this fond Conceit in several pages of his Pamphlet; for although in truth all Persons (the one Dissenting Grand-jury-man excepted) who pretend to the Name of Non-Subscribers, were as Remote from that concern, as a Lapland Priest, or the King of Bantam; yet the Reflecter makes a great noise and pudder about the Non-Subscribers; and having beat his Cushion for Voluntiers, he sets up a Banner, under which he endeavours to list all new-comers into that Glorious Character.

If by his Vindication of those that refus'd to Subscribe the Petition, he had not meant them that oppos'd, and made an Outcry against it, he might have sav'd his pains: For mere Refusers were never Censured by us; and to vindi­cate those who are not charg'd with any thing, may be thought the part of one who hath nothing to do, but would rather make mischief, than not find him­self business.

A grand Reason our Author is pleased to alledge for the Refusers Non-Subscrip­tion is [Pag. 19.] that they must become Sureties, when the parties themselves will not come into Bond: This is a lofty flight of words that are wide of the mark. But indeed, though the Subscribers were all satisf [...]'d with their own Act and Deed; Yet it would have bin a great weakness in any of them, to have Sollicited such as he to subscribe, or become Suretie, for their Diocesan: This had bin Ovem lupo commitiere; so should St. Paul have desi [...]ed or chosen Tertulius his malicious Accuser, to have chang'd his Note, and have pleaded for him, or become his Surety; any one would have concluded he had bin weary, both of his Reputation and his Life.

But truly the Reflecter notwithstanding his Deep-reach, discovers his In­trigue: For he begs two questions, supposing 1. That the Subscribers propo­sed themselves the Bishops Sureties, and 2. That they interceded for a favour to the Bishops, without their giving the Government any Security of their own; which is a strange implication, and is remote from the Language, and the [Page 4] design of our Address: 'Tis not to be doubted, but that some of the Fathers, if they had thought it necessary, could have produced such a List of the No­bility, Gentry, Gownmen and Plebeians (Men true to the interests of the present Settlement) to have enter'd into Bond for them, as would have pall'd the rankest Reflecter: But as they never signified their desire, or their need of such Compurgators; so their Friends could not judge it a part of their du­ty to give in their Names without Summons; nor would they have Subscribed, unless the Terms and the Conditions of the Favour had bin accepted: With which necessary performance, if either of the Non-jurors could not have closed his refusal together with his other Actions, do as little concern us, as the present argument him.

Our Author enquires, why the Bishops had not Petitioned of themselves; but if it were lawful for the Bishops so to have done, what dangerous Enor­mity could our Address for them be suppos'd to have carry'd in it? If the Re­flecter thinks it unlawful for them to have Petit [...]oned, he has discovered his good Inclination; and we may safely say, That as Caesar had many Marius's, so our Author seems to have abundance of Father Peter's in him: But truly, the Advice which that Jesuit gave to King James, had such ill effect on our Pre­lates in the late Reign, that I believe, some of them who were then Tower­touch'd for Petitioning, might be loath to be drawn through the River by the same Cat.

We do not question his Majesties Clemency and Indulgence to humble Sup­plicants (he Conquers by his Mercy, as well as by his Sword) but yet it may be observ'd, that those Persons whose Consciences are satisfy'd by the favour of the New Indulgence, did not personally approach the Royal presence, or the Bars of the two Houses, to offer their Petitions or Arguments on th [...]ir own behalf.

When our Author comes to Reflect on the Subscribers, he is not so posi­tive indeed, as to be a judge of a Grand-jury, and so waves their Character, by saying, it will not seem kind to distinguish them by any mark that carry's not Respect and Friendship with it: Yet he is not over-kind to some of them, having l [...]f [...] a Mark upon them, which he knows is not pleasing. Thus he di­stinguisheth; [Pag. 4.] some, saith he, of the Subscribers, are Persons of Worth and Loyalty to the Government, the rest have a particular Devotion for the Church of England; For what serves this Distinction, but to insinuate, that those who have a particular Devotion for the Church of England, are not Persons of Worth and Loyalty to the Government? Here his designs begin to appear, which he strenuously prosecutes, viz. To make all such suspected, as if they could not be good Subjects, and bear the World in Hand; that Fidelity to our National Church, and Loyalty to King William and Queen Mary, were inconsistent.

It may be observ'd what Art he do's use, to infuse jealousie into his Reader, when acknowledging there are the Names, he adds, it may be the Hands of such, &c. leaving it doubtful, whether those Hands were really there or no: [Pag. 4.] So that a prejudic'd Reader may suspect some sly shuffling in this Case. But of what principles is the Reflecter, that can insinuate a Grand-ju­ry lies under Suspicion of forging Hands to a Petition? A Villainy fitter to be objected to the Out-casts of a Pillory, than to Persons of some Character and Repute in their Country. One might be tempted to think, that the Reflecter had practis'd a Modern way of getting Hands to Petitions, when Schoolmasters and Mistresses set down the Names of their Scholars, and Masters of Fami­lys subscrib'd for all under their Roofs.

The Paper Signed by us, consisted both of an Address of Thanks, and of a Petition for Favour; though we need not so nicely distinguish between them, since our Address runs the same Fate with our Petition, and cannot obtain with our Learned Adversaries.

For our Examiner (who after his manner of Volubility, do's often push into the Rhetorick School) do's spit forth his Gall and Wormwood against the Form and Ceremony we used, in paying our gratitude to King Wil [...]iam, for his graci­ous promises, to Defend the Establish't Church. [P. 22.] the manner of thanks, says he, in the Grand-juries Address, seems to be the very same words of our Ridiculous Addr [...]ss [...]rs, in the preceding Reigns, when our Gloucester Gentlemen, among others, besieged King Charles and King James, with their thanks for the Reiterated Assurances, to maintain our Religion by Law Establisht; and they cannot, he says, get rid of the Old Rot. I have made some sally into the two past Reigns; during which time, I never sign'd an Address, to find out what Ad­dressers those were, against whom this loud Orator Exclaims in general terms. And as I perused the Papers, which at a distance give us some light into the intreagues of that Age; I found out some, whom he places in the same Order with those Gloucester Gentlemen; and they are the Reverend Bishops, Doctors and Clergy-men of London, whose Names will be Famous in History, when out Examiner and his Book will be mouldred into Dust. I would entreat the un­prejudic'd Reader, to Reflect with me on the Third Paragraph of the Address, which that Noble Prelate and his Clergy presented to the late King at his Ac­cession to the Crown, and then let him entertain what kind Opinion he plea­ses of the Examiner: Their words were these:

As the Principles of our Church have taught us our Duty to our Prince, so we most humbly thank your Majesty, See Gazett N. 2008. for making our Duty so easy and pleasant by your gracious Assurance, to defend our Religion Establisht by Law, which is dearer to us than our Lives; in a deep sense whereof we acknowledge our selves for ever bound, not only in Du­ty, but Gratitude to contribute all we can by our Prayers, our Doctrine and Ex­ample to your Majesties Happy and Prosperous Reign.

This was the Language of one of our most Famous Prelates and his Bre­thren; this was the Concurring Sense of many other Bishops and Addressors of that time; and the like strain our Grand-juries Paper do's bear. I am sure none but an intriguing Faction, and their deluded Proselytes, who Addrest King James with thanks, for a Declaration that pointed at the ruine both of our Church and Government, can pretend to Condemn it. But do's the Ex­aminer, who arrogates to himself the Title of a Clergy-man, dare, in this sort, to affront the Lord Bishop of London, and his Clergy, because they Addrest for the Continuance and Support of our Religion? Must the Grand-jury of Gloucester, be placed Rank and File with those Holy and Exemplary Men, be­fore our Examiners Tribunal; and be together with them Condemn'd by this upstart Judge, to his own Distemper of the Rot, and to the Character of Ridiculous Persons? 'Tis pitty the great Compton, had not desired the Exami­ner to have drawn up the Address, or at least to have beg'd his Pardon for the Error: But our Clergy-man is even with him; and tells the World, that the Bishop is Ridiculous: And I hope his Lo [...]dship will not envy us the glory of suffering in our Reputatio [...] with him.

But our Examiner will not let us pass without a further fling; for after he had according to his usual gravity considered our thanks to his Majesty, for his Resolution to grant a Pardon to his Subjects (which we need not blush to [Page 6] own was another Clause in our Address) he subjoyns a pretty Ob­servation:P. 22. A Man, (says he) would naturally infer, that our Grand Jury found themselves in need of a good Act of Indempnity, &c. O the blessed Consequence! The Grand Jury Addrest his Majesty with thanks, for his Royal Favour to such as were lyable to the Penalties of the Law, and therefore they themselves needed a Pardon most. This Raillery was I suppose learnt from Celsus Julian, or some other profest Enemy of the Christian Religion; and if we admit the Argument to have any force, our Clergy m [...]n may in his Ser­mons at the Coffee-House (where I guess he is more Conversant than at the Church) prescribe a New Alcoran, instead of the Bible, and without doubt may, among the Admirers of Novelty, gain many Proselytes; but by the Umpirage of Holy Writ, his supposition fails in a great point, Charity be­ing there adjudg'd to be the infallible Badge of Innocency. And as no love could parallel that of our Saviour, and of the Holy Stephen; so did they (without partial Reservation) intercede with God for a gene [...]al Mercy as to their Murtherers, so to the whole World: And will our Examiner affirm, that they themselves stood in need of a Pardon most? It is no wonder he throws his Invectives upon the Gentlemen of a Grand Jury, since by the Consequence of his presumptious Hypothesis, he spares not even the Ho­ly Jesus, nor his Renowned Proto-Martyr.

I must with the Examiners leave retort the Argument upon his own head; for by his way of Reasoning, we may conclude, That because he has (to all appearance) been so violent an Opposer of a general Pardon, that therefore he himself was furnish'd before and wanted none: He hath indeed abun­dantly discover'd his blind side. But altho a good Act of Indempnity hath laid a Plaister on his Eye, and sear'd up his old Wounds; yet I doubt whether any Gentleman of the Insurance-Office will be so fond of his Acquaintance, or so secure of his good behaviour for the future, as to stand oblig'd that his Sores, if rub'd, will not break out afresh.

Notwithstanding the wild Caprice of our loose Examiner, I hope no Per­son of tolerable Nature will blame us, for our hearty acknowledgment of the Royal goodness, in maintaining our Religion, or condemn our Zeal, either for Addressing with Thanks for the Kings indulgence to some of our Fellow Subjects, or for Entreating him, if he thought it agreeable to his Service (which was the sole drift, as well as the very Letter of our Petition) to dispense his Clemency to a few others. And truly, tho it may now seem too late, to enter far into the Merit of the Petition, with respect to the Per­sons, and the cause for which we interceded; yet for the necessary Vindica­tion of those who subscribed it, I think it expedient to offer the following Considerations; And therefore,

1. In the First Place, I observe that a Grand Jury (who represent the Bo­dy of a County) may be suppos'd to have a Right to Petition, for matters of an higher and more publick concern, than many other private Persons: Nor doth it Reflect upon us, that but few other Grand Juries have Petition'd af­ter our sort; or that the Addresses of some former Grand Juries have been very enormous; for a Priviledg is not lost by the non-usage, or by the con­trary or perverse Usage of him, or them, who cannot renounce the Privi­ledge. The Reflecter indeed has these Words; Some of us (says he) do question the Legality of Petitioning: P. 4. But whether he himself be a Conformist or Dissenter in the point, he leaves us to guess; and so do we the dispute of it among them. The Subscribers were agreed it was Legal, [Page 7] and not inconsistent with their Loyalty; of which the same Author grants they had the Opinion of able Lawyers: But put the Case we exceeded the just bounds of our Duty, I am sure we meant honestly; and tho' a good intent of the Will secures us not from being guilty of Mistakes in our Judg­ment, which may also betray us into practical Errors, such perhaps as will not only expose a man to the rash Reflections of his Adversaries, but justly tempt the best Men to censure and admonish him; yet doth it exempt us from the double Iniquity of intending ill, which the Examiner (whose reason evaporates into mere Rant and Sophistry) would perswade the World was our great design.

2. Secondly, As we may Note a difference between a dispensation in favor of such who were already Bishops, and the preferring others (of a more in­ferior Character) to the same Dignity; so I judge it necessary to observe, that we did not presume to Petition for the advance of any one to the Episcopal Charge, who scrupled the Oaths; for this would have been a most absurd Motion: But the Reason which prevail'd with our Grand Jury to Address, proceeded as from a sincere respect to their late Diocesan, and some others (of whose Probity, Innocence and Noble Confession, they had not been the careless Spectators) so from an humble Enquiry, whether for some Considerations (not repugnant however, to the Service due to his Majesty) no favour might have been extended to some few Non-Swearers, who had been already setled in the Cathedral Chair. (This Question the Reflecter endeavoured to evade, by consi­dering our Address for the Bishops, with Respect to their being wholy depriv'd, whenas we Petitioned during their Suspension, at least before their Successors were Nominated, or admitted into their places; so that there was a possibility of their being restored) This I say was a question then; but his Majesty, and the Law have now decided it; and therefore we justly submit to the Deter­mination which K. William has made, who is by Nature as uncapable to design wrong, as he is in Honour averse to act it.

3. In the next place, it is not to be supposed, we should have so far for­got the Regard that was due from us to the Authority of the Legislators, as to have judged, that the Statute which enjoyns the Oaths, ought not to have a general Obligation; for we could not have had the pretence to obtain the benefit of our Petition, but by a New Act of Parliament, and consequently, by owning the Obligation of the Statute in force; so that I conceive it has been very absurdly objected to us, That our Petition was level'd against King, Lords and Commons; for our Adversary takes things for granted, which are not true in point of Fact: Our Petition being not for the abolishing or eva­cuating an Old Law, but for a mitigation of it, with Relation to the Bishops, by a new Statute: Besides, the severe words of the Examiner seem to insinu­ate, as tho we disputed the Authority of his Majesty, and of the States of the Realm: But I hope no moderate man will so far encourage the Lewd­ness of his Fancy, as to draw such a fundamental Treachery out of our Peti­tion; for we were not insensible of the respect that was due to the King and his Parliament, to the Prerogative of the one and to the Rights of the other; but rather from those Considerations we were the more secure in our design, since we neither addrest with thanks for a Pardon, which we thought they could not grant, nor Petitioned for a favour they could not dispense.

4. Fourthly, Had his Majesty, or the Parliament refused to have allowed our Petition, this would not necessarily have noted us of Arrogance, or put a Slur upon the Petitioners: For as their admitting our Request, would have [Page 8] been an Exercise of their Authority, so the refusing it, would have been a Declara­tion of the same power: And tho the Government (if our Petition had been ac­cepted) might have been said, to have taken into their consideration the hum­ble desires of a Grand Jury; yet by their refusal, they could not properly be said to dissent from us, or; we from them; for we must be suppos'd as to be concluded, so to be satisfy'd with their Conduct, and not to Examine the My­stery of their Refusal.

5. Hence it follows, that our Address was a Petition for favour, and not a claim of a Positive Right; for such a demand would rather have been a Remonstrance, than an humble Petition; but we were well satisf [...]'d, that if our Request had not been allowed, we should have had no wrong done to us by the Go­vernment; tho this cannot however excuse those busie Gentlemen, who thought it their Duty and Interest, to stifle and prevent our Application to the Prince. I confess we fell short in one Circumstance of our Duty;R [...]f. p. 5. for we never understood till one of our Authors gave us notice of it, that he assumes to himself the Office of handing Petitions; and therefore he hath Reason not only to hold his hands, as he is pleas'd to express it, but also to storm that we did not cringe and give him our knee, and entreat him after an humble sort to undertake the Patronage and Ma­nagement [...]f our Address.

6. Lastly, When our Adversaries have spoken their parts, as will be ob­serv'd by all sensible Men, their Arguments against our Address, whatever they are pleased to make them infer, do not of their own Nature prove it un­lawful, but seem rather to accuse it as inconvenient; and whether it was so or no, his Majesty for whose Consideration it was intended, and who alone in proper speaking, could grant or avoid it, must be presumed to have been the sole Judge to determine; so that we are not accountable to any of them, in a Concern that is Foreign to their Cognizance, tho otherwise we are content to gratifie their Ambition of their being thought Grand Courtiers and Politicians, and allow them a pretence to the State and Majesty of the Lyons, which guarded King Solomons Throne.

Having Premis'd these few plain Notes, which I have not set down to en­hance the reckoning of dispute, but rather to alleviate the dreadful Charge, to which we have been Sentenc'd by some mens Charity; I proceed to the consideration of the other Objections, that lye scatter'd in our Authors a­g [...]inst our Address. And truly, who would not deride that Cavil of the Ex­aminer whereby we are inform'd, that in our Petition for the Bishops we stumbled unhappily upon the Word [The Bishops serv­ing their Majesties in their several Provinces] and that it should ra­ther have been serving God Almighty?P. 23. Indeed this is a grand Exception wor­thy our Clergy-man, who in a sudden heat, was so intent upon the Spiritua­lities, that he forgot what a more Carnal Officer of the Church-Militant has laid down in Opposition to him: For the Reflecter assures us, That Their Majesties Service is as much the necessary Employ of Bishops,P. 7. as of other Peers. I could enlarge on this Head, and tell the Examiner, That the Service of the Prince in matters just and agreeable, is a Service of God: But I perceive our Clergy-man has such Correspondence at Rome (for he hath given us many occasions to think him no great Enemy of that Court) that I believe he would be content, that neither our Lords-Primates, nor any other of our English Bishops, should be the Servants either of God or the [Page 9] King in this Nation, but that we should be govern'd by another High-priest, who Stiles himself the Servant of the Servants of the Lord.

Nor am I on this account chargeable with uncharitableness, since our Criti­cal Author gives us the Notion of a Bishops mediate and immediate Service. A pleasant need not formerly laid down by an Old Jesuit, to exempt the Cler­gy from the Service of Temporal Princes! But the Famous Bishop Andrews, Abhorring the evasive juggle, affirm'd, that this Distinction will be of no stead at the Day of Judgment. And truly 'tis a Comfort our Examiner will not be our Judge. If he be an Accuser, he may there find a Companion, to whom th [...] Scriptures have given that very Significant Title, expressing both his Character and his Office.

But in the same Period, our Examiner grows serious, and favours us with a Learned Reading in Philology, giving us to understand, that the word Provinces, is not to the purpose;P. 24. but that it should have bin in the singular Number, to mean the Province of Can­terbury, then Vacant. Very gravely observ'd! And yet this is also a meer strif [...] of words: For Dr. Cowel can tell him, that the word Province, is used divers times in our Statutes, not only for the Circuit of an Arch-bishops Jurisdiction, but also for several parts of the Realm; However it is not very material, if for peace sake, I allow our Author to be a Man of parts, tho there was not a very great necessity of shewing his Reading in this Case: For many of his Friends, who think all Presbyters to be Bishops, are of Opinion, that the word [Pro­vinces] in the Plural Number, was very Expressive, there having bin some Non-swearing Ministers in both Arch-bishopricks; and we are the more incli­nable to offer this Salvo on this occasion, since the Province of York is con­terminous with Scotland, where every Church has a Bishop, and every Fami­ly a Laird Spiritual. 'Tis a Delightful Consideration, that the Industry and Concurrence both of our Deprived and Conforming Bishops, Defeated the In­triegues of Father Ellis, and his Three Associates, who made but Four Diocesses, and One Province of our whole Nation. O may the great God unite them a­gain, to the Confusion of the Enemies of our Church!

The Reflecter, whose good will is not to be purchas'd at any cheaper rate, than by making him our Confessor, is much concern'd to know who sprang the Design of our Address;P. 4. and by whose Councel and Encouragement, it was set on Foot, &c. Here our Author finds a Bugbear, as if some Trap were laid for Refusers to Subscribe. O Mighty jealousie, which sowers every thing! Some fancy Suspicion to be an Argument of Wisdom, as if people could not discover their Brains, but by shewing their Teeth. But truly, the Spring from whence it came, to use his own Metaphor, was the Respect some Persons (I need not tell of what quali­ty) had for the Suspended Fathers. And as the Gentlemen of the Grand-jury, had no other Prompter but their own Experience, to satisfie them of the for­mer Innocence, Piety and Constancy of the Bishops; so they had no other in­ducement, but Charitable Inclination, and good Will to Petition for them. It this be not agreeable to that Policy, which some account Modish, it may not however be repugnant to Christian Charity, and in this thought we take com­fort, tho we cannot pacifie the severe Reflections of others.

Then, as if he had some good meaning for them, he doubts what Success it might have had,P. 5, 6. whether it might not be to them rather for the worse than the better; because upon their Restoration, there would have bin a continual Watch and Jealousie, worse than can be now. Alas! What courtesie is there in [...]rusted in the Reflecters Pitch? Our Author may pass for another A [...]gu [...]; he alone had Jealousie enough, to have kept a Troublesom Watch upon the Six Bishops if [Page 10] they had bin restor'd. But the Subscribers intended Honestly, the good of the Reverend Fathers; and if any of them would not have thought well of the Favour, they might not be compelled to accept it, but be left to the choice of their for­mer privacy: And tho Hypocrisie and Guilt, make Men Jealous and Fearful, yet Innocency and Uprightness, fear not the most watchful and the most jealous Spies.

But of all Men, give me the Examiner for a Person the most kind to the Prelates:P. 23. He objects to us, that our Address was an Affront to them, We having Petitioned for their Pardon, who he says wanted none. This indeed is a strange and unexpected impeachment; and how can the poor Subscribers avoid the Stroke of the Allegation? It seems for once, that we must so far pay a Respect to the Normans Conquest, as to Consult what the Authors, who are suppos'd to understand the Sense of those words, which we derive from that People, speak in this Case: They tell us, that a Pardon do's not only signifie Veniam, but that it also denotes favorem Gratiae Pacis & Benevolentiae gratuitum: And therefore if we consider it in this Latitude, the Examiner, or any such like Friends of the Bishops, have little reason to im­peach us, as tho we had affronted them: For the Bishops Refusal or Omission to Swear, had render'd them Subject to a certain paena damni, and to many Legal in­capacities, which can never be taken off, but by a Capacitating Law; and even such a Favour, is no less than an especial Grace, that Remits the Omission of what was otherwise very necessary to be done. And yet if we take the word Pardon, in our Examiners narrow Sense, and at the same time consider the words of the Petition, as they were Abbreviated in the Apology to which his Ob­jection refers, the Cavil will appear to carry with it the true Spirit of the Au­thor: For after we had returned our thanks to his Majesty, for his Resolution to grant to all his Subjects (except such as in his Princely Wisdom, he should Distinguish from the rest) his Gracious Pardon: The Apology informs, that we desired the like Favour to our Bishops, particularly our Diocesan, &c. By which words 'tis plain, we Petitioned for a Favour, not the same, but like to that of a Pardon; like in respect of the Fountain, from whence it must be de­riv'd, which is the Kings Indulgence; like in respect of the Conveyance, it be­ing to be perform'd in Parliament; and like in respect of the End, which point­ed to the Service due to his Majesty. A Novice in the Schools can tell us, that every like, is not the same. And several who have perused a Copy of the Ori­ginal Address can testifie, that we Petitioned for a Favour in the General Term, and only thank't his Majesty for a Pardon.

I confess I took up some few Pages to prove, that the Kings of England, are the Fountains of all Acts of Grace; but as I there endeavour'd to Defeat the sorry Arguments which were proclaim'd in the Ears of the Unthinking People, to the prejudice of the Title of our Address; so can no person take occasion from that Discourse, to conclude there are no other Acts of Grace, than that of a Pardon; for we should then confound the Genus, and the Species; and the Examiner who pretends to the Highest Pertch of Logick, would soon tumble down Porphyry's Tree, and 'tis pitty to let our pert Clergy-Man perish, before his time.

I need not in this place, offer any thing to satisfie the Reflecters wonder,P. 11. why the Petition was not directed to the Par­liament; it was not out of Disrespect to them, or their Authority: But whereas our Paper carryed in it our Address of thanks to King William, for his draught of Pardon sent down to the Lords House; so it was not irregular to respect the same Fountain of Grace and Favour in our Petition for the Bishops; nor can we think the Parliament would have bin averse to any thing which his Majesty might first espouse and recommend to their Consideration.

The Examiner was not insensible of this, and therefore in his usual [...]urlesqu [...] strain he tells us, that I spent great part of the Pamphlet in vindicating the Grand-j [...]ries making their Address to the King, and not to the King and Parliament; and that its not worth the pains to consider, whether they should have Addrest to the King, or to the Parliament, or to both, &c. If our furious Examiner will not run till he is out of Breath, I desire him to stop a while, and observe, that if it was folly in us to Address, it was no great Wisdom in some of King Wil­liams pretended Friends, to give out that the noted fault in our Petition, con­sisted in its being Dedicated to King William, and not to the Parliament; and that it was unseasonable to provoke the Prerogative to further Advances, when it had already (such forsooth was their grave Judgment in the Law) proceeded too far by the draught of a general Pardon, sent to the Lords House. If I re­flected on these persons Treachery in the late Reign, with respect to their fulsom Addresses against our Laws and Religion, in Compliance with an Arbi­trary Unlimited Power, inconsistent with both; I am not much to blame, espe­cially since they now pretend to be therefore better Subjects than their Neigh­bours; because they stint the Authority Imperial, which by our Fundamental Laws, is lodg'd in the King, and Exclaim in the Language or Decree of Na­ture to the Ocean, Hitherto O proud Prerogative, shalt thou go and no far­ther.

The Reflecter seems to be astonished, that the Petitioners should pretend to take to themselves the Title of his Majesties most Loyal Subjects. To satisfie our Authors Curiosity, I observe, that Honest Men,P. 12. usually measure their Duty with due proportion to the Object; and therefore since King William is the most High, the most Serene, and his most Excellent Majesty; it was requisite that a Grand jury (who by their Office are immediately employed in the Affairs of the Crown) should testi­fie their submissions to the Soveraign, with the most Humble, and the most sensible Regard. And truly, no Persons ought to be Scandaliz'd at the Expressi­on, as if we would Exclude other Men from a just claim to the same Character, since in the English Tongue, a Superlative do's not always imply Comparisons more than the Positive Degree; for tho the Examiner be most Learn'd, it do's not follow, but that the Reflecter may (without injury to Grammar) be as learn'd as he or any other Pamphleteer in the Town.

The Reflecter might esteem me unkind to his Memory, if I should not re­cite his Elegant flight, by which he seems to recommend himself to us, as the Mouth and Pythia; or at least a profest Advocate of the true Canting Tribe. We are glad, saith he, to hear our Grand-jury openly profess Loy­al [...]y in the Highest Degree; P. 12. yet knowing how late many of them came into the Roll of Loyalists, and how changeable Men are, that are not fixt upon the strong Principl [...]s of Religion and Obedience, we cannot joyn our Names to theirs. We know our own Forwardness and Constancy: We know what our Preaching and Prayers have bin, and are before we were called to Fasting and Prayers, and how we have endeavoured with all our Might, to attain the Ends of them. We were not only for the Prince of Orange's coming in, and taking the Go­vernment, but for his being King. We wished that nothing might hinder him from going to Ireland, and God hath wonderfully answer'd our daily Prayers for Success, and a safe Return; for which we rejoyce, and praise the Lord of Hosts, and should have ventured our Lives, in doing the Office of our Ministers with our Country-men, had there been any such need of their Marching against the French and Jacobites &c. O the Modesty of the Reflecter and his Brethren! O the Supercil [...]ous and fond conceit of our Modern Pharisees: Here are Praises by sound of Trumpet, here are long Prayers without Charity, here are fastings to be seen of Men. Here [Page 12] is a strict Observation of the Law, Exclusive of others of the same pretence. A poor Publican and Sinning Subscriber, must not be named the same Day with them. We are glad to hear that their Loyalty is fixt upon the strong Principles of Religion and Obedience; the time was (I speak by the Reflecters own way of Argument) when they were of another mind. We have known the Affections of many of them, to the Family of Orange, before their taking upon them the Government, when they seduc'd our late English Absalom to af­fect the Royalty: For as Levi paid Tythes in Abraham, so would our Gracious Soveraigns (had that Rebellion prosper'd) have suffered in the Person of their Father, suffer'd, I say, in the Natural Sense of the words; for the Jealousie of Victorious Princes, seldom permit Rivals to escape the last Extremity. We have known some Mens Conversion to Loyalty, which was no less Extravagant and Dangerous in its Effects, than the other Projects of their Brethren: For these High-flown Jacobites, resolved to Expiate for their former Crimes by committing greater, and to Appease their New Patron, by Sacrificing the Rights and Interests of their present Majesties, and the whole Nation to an unnatural Bigottry: We have known their Prayers and Preaching; for their Sermons, Writings and Petitions against Popery, may be gathered out of the Gazets, in King James's Reign. We have known the Sincerity of these Cla­morous Men, to maintain the Protestant Religion, and the English Liberties, with their Lives and Fortunes, when they accepted an Equivalent, which the Prince by his Pentionary Fagel, discover'd to be Destructive of both. We have known, at least we have heard of their former Obedience to the Lord of Hosts, when the Day was their own, and their Saints Rod in the High Places of the Earth; for our Judaizing Loyalists, enclin'd not to the Divinity, nor to the Language of the Gospel, but were for reviving the Old Law, when the Priest sounded the Trumpet of War, when the Tabernacle rested in the Camp, and when the great God, Gracious and Merciful, was pleased to be called the Lord of Hosts. In fine, we have known when this new Brood of Loyalists came into the Roll; and as we now rejoyce at their Conversion to Loyalty, so we wish them the Grace of Perseverance, that they may never back-slide or be given to change.

And whereas our Reflecter in his Bravado, told us, that he was not only for the Prince of Orange's coming in, and taking the Government, but for his being King, he would do well to explain what he designs by this strong Principle of Loyalty, to which he will not consent our Subscribers must pretend. If he means he was for the Prince's taking the Government, and being King at the time he first Landed amongst us; we dar'd not I confess, to joyn in so Arrogant a piece of Loyalty, in affront to that very Prince, who then published to the whole World, that he had no other thoughts, but to settle some grand disputes in a Free-Parliament: This was the full sense of the Famous Declaration, which subdued all our Hearts, and purchas'd the Nation, without the Trouble and Hazard of a Conquest. How did Men, Women and Children then look up to­wards Heaven, to consult the Winds and Weather, and desired God to send them a Blessing from the East! The Reflecter and his Friends, were not the a­lone joyful People; for all Qualities and Sexes joyn'd in the Acclamation of a general Triumph: They kist the Hand of the Illustrious Nassau, they Adored his Shadow, they prayed for his Life, and were perswaded by the pleasant Cre­dulity of their charmed Eyes, that every Tree did bear Lawrel for the Head of their Deliverer.

If he means he was for his being King during the great Conventionary Con­test; I acknowledge we could not pretend to give our Verdict in that high Con­troversy; and I may demand, whether our Representatives did ever consult our [Page 13] State-Casuist in so nice a Point? But if he says, he was for his being King when he was actually so, he has made a wonderful and a very strong disco­very; and I would fain know, why he will not suffer us to be of the same mind with him, or at least permit us to, subscribe to the judgment of a more Ve­nerable Person, who declar'd, that tho he understood not how to make a King, yet he knew how to obey him.

I before observ'd, that our Reflecter at one dash of kindness separated some Persons of our Grand-jury, from the Number of Loyalists, for no other rea­son, but because they have a particular Devotion for the Church of England: And truly, since he hath at this sort traduc'd our good Mother, who is justi­fy'd by her Children; he must not be displeased, if I pacifie his hot Zeal, by discovering of what import, and upon what odd principles many mens Loy­alty is built, who are her sworn Enemies. In doing this, I cannot be thought to act an unjust part; and if any Persons are displeased with it, they must either Renounce their fond Principles, or else submit to the Reflection, with­out casting a Reproach upon us, as though we had misrepresented them.

And therefore, in the first place, I demand how a grand Pretence to Loy­alty, fixt upon the principle of Religion and Obedience to King William, who hath own'd himself obliged by Oath; as also by Royal Promise to maintain the Church of England, in all its Rights, Priviledges and Immunities, can con­sist with a certain League and Covenant, which some persons have taken, and as yet think Obligatory? What Reply can they reasonably offer, unless they tells us they have found out the contrivance of doubling the Altar at Delos? The Words of the League, to which they stand bound, run thus: Viz. That without Respect of Persons, they will endeavour the extirpation of our Church Government by Bishops, &c. And that they will not give themselves to a detestable Indifferency, or Neutrality in this Cause, but all the days of their Lives, Zealously and Constantly continue therein against all Opposition, and promote it ac­cording to their Power, against all Letts and Impediments whatsoever: All which they will do as in the Sight of God.

Here is a late Oath to a King, and yet an Old Covenant against him too, for being a Lett and Impediment to their resolv'd design. Here is a sworn Fidelity to a Church of England-Prince, with a Salvo of Canonical Obedience to the League they enter'd into against the same Church. If they are true to the first Obligation, they are false to the latter; they cannot I suppose pre­tend to be true to both, unless they carry a double heart, and the Face of Janus. For to be sincere both to King William, who is led by Christian Mo­deration, and also to the Old Covenant, which indispensably obliges to avo [...]d all Terms of Moderation; is a fancy altogether as new and strange as that, which possest a grand Casuist of our times, who declar'd that his A [...]egiance to King James, was not superseded by his Oath to King William (indeed this is an Age of Paradoxes, and secular interest is the great Lord of Hosts and King Paramount) I would not be thought to exasperate, or to obstruct the blessed design of an Union among Protestants, for which all good Christians ought incessantly to pray; but I may reasonably observe, that as no exact Loyalty, so no true Union can be expected, if men are govern'd by an irreconcilable Prejudice.

Nor is the Loyalty of some others, I mean those Republican Zealots, who at present joyn in the separation from the Church for which we have a Devo­tion, and who formerly supplanted the Covenanters in their Authority to be esteem'd, as the Natural result of a sincere Principle. What Repentance have they declar'd for their old Iniquities? Their Words might then obtain some Credit with the World: What new Atchievements of Loyalty have they to [Page 14] produce? Their Actions would then speak highly in their favor: Some of them are I confess therefore quiet, because they are at their Ease, because they Ca­rouze and Drink at the Fountain of Mercy, because they Revel at the Banquet of our great Abasuerus; and yet they will scarce permit others to feed on the Crumbs that fall from his Table. God forbid I should envy the bounty of our Royal Master, to those who came into his Service, or rather Protection at the Eleventh h [...]ur. However, it seems unreasonable that they who did not bear any part of the Burthen, or heat of the day, but are enter'd into the Harvest of other mens Labours, should so highly pretend as to Monopo­lize all Merit to themselves, as though they had purchas'd the claim with the sweat of their Bro [...]s, and the hazard of their Lives. In short, as these would be Patriots (I mean those who usually flatter themselves with a recital of their Performances) were far from being the happy Instruments of our deli­verance from the Advance it gain'd in Westminster-Hall, at the brave Confes­sion of our Bishops, to the glorious Consummation it there received at the Installment of their Majesties, and compos'd not the Body of the Nobility, Gentry and Clergy who introduc'd it, but by their Treacherous practices did rather obstruct and oppose it: So all that can be offer'd by their best Friends in favour of their present Carriage is, that they have not yet accord­ing to the former Vote of their Scarlet-Saints (nor God be thanked is it in their Power) Seiz'd, Imprisoned, Arraigned, Condemned and Beheaded the whole Race of the Stuarts. And indeed their boasted Loyalty to Crown'd Heads, may fitly be compared to the Courtesie of the Raparees; who, that I may use Cicero's words, are said to be kind, and to give a man his Life, when they don't Murther him.

Of this strong principle, old Mr, Capel formerly gave the world a notable Specimen; for when a Gentleman inform'd that godly Preacher, that the Saints who then governed at Court, were much enclin'd to the Opinion of the Fifth Monarchy, and presum'd that in their days, Christ would commence his Temporal Reign on Earth; he answer'd, let not Christ then adventure in­to Whitehall, lest they cut off his Head, as they have already done his Vicegerent's. But the Tragedy of the Royal Martyr, is by them now quite hist off the Stage as an old VVives Fable, and must not be so much as named, unless it be to justifie and to ridicule it. For though a subscribing Grand-jury-man be an unpardonable Sinner; even Murther, Rapine, Treason and Sacriledge are adjudged to be but Venial Crimes in many of the Party; Nay, sometimes Meritorious Atchievements when perpetrated for the Honour and Service of their Moloch the good old cause: At most they make but a nine days VVonder in the opinion of those Jesuited people, who are forward and severe in censuring the Faults and Frailties of other men, but cannot endure to be told their own; and like the lew'd VVoman in the Pro­verbs, enhaunce their guilt by a Profession of their honesty.

I have with great reluctance been led from a Subject of Peace and good VVill (for such was our Petition) to consider the Crimes of any Persons, and with as little delight have I Reflected on the Iniquity of former times; but I may be excus'd, if besides the provocations of the Reflecter, and others of his Brethren which gave the occasion to a Discourse of this Nature, we consider with what industry and cunning the same Spirit does endeavour to act its part in our Age: And therefore no Person has just cause to censure me, as bearing no due respect to the Act of Oblivion in King Charles the Se­conds Reign. I do not doubt after the Jews return from Babylon, their City and Temple being rebuilt, and the true VVorship reinstated among them; but that God in Mercy gave them a Plenary Act of Oblivion, and fulfilled the [Page 15] words of the Prophet in vacating the Old Proverb, Of the Fathers Eating sower Grapes, and the Childrens Teeth being set on Edge: And yet notwithstand­ing that Act of Grace, which far exceeded the general Amnesty granted by King Charles to the Enemies of his Family; Our Saviour doth not think it inconsistent with Justice, to charge the Jews of his time with the Murther of all the Prophetical Martyrs from Abel to Zachariah. VVhat did those VVords import, but that the Jews were guided by the Spirit of Cain that slew his Bro­ther, and of their own Forefathers that destroyed their Prophets? By this instance it is evident, that an Evil Principle is not to be sheltered under any Protection: And an Act of Oblivion seems in a great part designed, as for the Encouragement of Penitents by a Solemn display of Mercy; so to prevent some grand Enormities from being discoursed of, lest the corrupt Nature of man be infected with the Leprosie and Itch, with desire after Evils which long disuse might render not so very practicable. VVould to God we had no such Infection in our Age; and I wish that Men of knowledg were not infected, at least that they who pretend to Loyalty were none of the Party. But alass! there are too many, who seem willing to Copy the Deformity of the last Age, which saw our State reduc'd to Anarchy and Confusion by a prevailing Faction; and how can the vulgar escape the Net, when they are drawn into Sedi­tion by those who would be esteemed the Friends of the Government, or would purchase that Name at any Rate? VVe have heard much Discourse of the Loyalty of one of King William's pretended humble Servants, who was pleased in Print to admonish his Majesty of several Miscarriages. He told him plain­ly, that the Affairs of State were like a bewitcht Cart, which being at first easily drawn, on a sudden became immoveable: That the Form of the order (which was no other than for a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God, for having made the Prince of Orange the glorious Instrument of our great Deli­verance from Popery and Arbitrary Power) had little of the Majesty of God concern'd in it; but was of dangerous consequence, and an indication of an unhappy temper, prevalent in the Assembly. VVhat could a rank Jacobite have said worse? And what Language could better gratifie the designs of the French Louis? But he takes the most sensible offense and indignation, that the Parlia­ment should find King James's departure an Abdication, and contrary to the concurrent Votes of those who have submitted to the Government not out of private Interest and Revenge, but for Conscience sake seems willing to keep open that breach as a reserve, I suppose for him and his party on Future E­mergencies; and therefore says, it should have been declar'd a Flight of a Cri­minal from Justice. O Loyalty fixt upon a strong Principle! It seems some men were not unprovided of another Consecrated Axe, and a block for the Service of their cause. They formerly bestow'd the Present upon the Grand­father; they threatned the Father whom they had so lately Caressed, with a Tast of the like courtesie; no doubt but the Son will beware of the Trea­cherous Kisses of such Judas Loyalists.

VVhat shall I say of the Cloud of other Loyalists, who darken our Hemi­sphere, and Usurp upon the Age? Their VVritings publish the In [...]quity of their Minds: and it has been reasonably demanded by an honest Person what Duty or Service can it be to their Majesties to tell the People twice or three times a VVeek from the Press, That Sovereign Princes are on their good Beha­viour? If the King pleases them, their Loyalty is then usually fixt (as they would have us believe) upon the strong Principles of Religion and Obedi­ence: But if His Majesty denies them any thing, or c [...]osses their Humour (even tho he gratifies the honest, and the most considerable part of hi [...] Sub­jects) Then no longer Pipe, no longer Dance; Then they change their Note: [Page 16] to your Tents, O! Israel, is the Text, Kings are the Nations Trustees, and must give an account of their Trust; then the Prince has not kept his Com­pact, and his Subjects are not bound to keep their part of the Compact, but may bring him to the Stool of Justice. Behold the strong Principles of the Reli­gion, and Obedience of our Modern Loyalists, or (to use the Reflecters own Expression) We have known how late many of them came into the Roll. Qui alterum inculat probri, ipsum se intueri oportet, Rather than joyn our Names with such Loyalists, we will bear the Reproach, of having a particular Devotion for the Church of England, whose Halcyon Wings have never yet bin dipt in Blood; and who tho flie governs her Children with the Authority of a grave Matron, yet she still preserves the Purity and the Innocence of a Virgin.

The Reflecter tells us, that an Unanimous Conjunction of all degrees of Men, would more dishearten our publick Enemies, than a formida­ble Army:P. 13. This we grant: Our Publick Enemies are France and Rome; why therefore hath it still bin the practice of Facti­ous Spirits, to serve the interests of both, by ridiculing those who have a par­ticular Devotion for that Church, which is the great Enemy and Opposer of Popery?

Besides, if the Reflecter would suggest, that our Petition did hearten the Enemies of the Government, he do's us wrong; for how could any of the Bi­shops have enjoy'd the benefit of the King's Grace, without entertaining it as such? And the Acceptance of the Favour, as it would have imply'd their Sub­missions to the present Powers, in a very material Case; so would France and Rome and Italy, and all the Enemies of our Establishment, have reapt no Advantage by the bargain.

When the Reflecter comes to consider the Persons and Matter for which we Petitioned, he Objects, That the deprived Bishops had ob­structed the publick Service and Compliance of others,P. 6. by their Example: And the Examiner says, that they had thrown Dirt upon our Deliverance. But to this I Answer, that the Subscribers knew no­thing of it, and they did sufficiently signifie their own per­swasion:P. 5. Nor are they accountable for any subsequent Crimes or Failings of the Non-swearers, pretending as little to Di­vine, as our Clergy-man; who tho he is apt to forget himself, did so far Mi­tigate his Censures, as to confess, that he was obliged in good Manners,P. 17. to think that those Reverend Persons, had some doubts which forbad them to take the Oaths: and that tho uncharitable People were inclinable enough of themselves, to put an harsh Interpretation upon their Carriage, yet those who had a just measure of Charity for the Bishops,P. 13. P. 14. were willing to think (I am sure we should not otherwise have Petitioned) that those Re­verend Persons, did heartily rejoyce at the late Revolution, as carrying with it, the Happiness and Prosperity of the Protestant Religion, which otherwise would have bin at the bottom of Misery.

But what do's the Reflecter mean, by telling the Subscribers, that the depri­ved Bishops had obstructed the Publick Service and Compliance of others, by their Example? If we consider this Reflection with respect to the Clergy, I may tell him, that never were Clergy more unanimous, in subscribing to so great a Revolution: Nor have there bin wanting among the Deprived Fathers, who when the Inferior Clergy apply'd themselves for Counsel to direct their Con­duct, advised them by all means, to Conform to the Government, in due Form and Ceremony, if they could in Conscience do it: And when a certain person, who seem'd to be an implacable Non-juror, and endeavoured to infect [Page 17] others with the Fire of his Leprosie, had for meer worl [...]ly Interest comply­ed, and declar'd that he was furnish' [...] with an hidden reserve of strong Ale, on purpose to convey down the Oath more glibly; his Diocesan (one of the Suspended Bishops) was highly disgusted at the Affront put on the Government by such Brutish Insolence. And as at the time of our Petitioning, as I have al­ready observ'd, we knew nothing of any publick Service obstructed by the Ex­ample of the Bishops; so we think the Service of those Men to be of little account who are led by meer Example without examining the Cause. And as the paucity of the Non-Swearers, as one of our Authors observ'd, render'd their Party inconsiderable; so the very few for whom we Petitioned, may satisfie all honest Men, that we thought not every Non-Swearer considerable enough or worthy a Priviledge, and so by Consequence we cannot be presumed to have Petitioned for Non-swearers meerly as such; and there­fore I think I have no Reason to observe the Reflectors Quaere,P. 8. & [...]. why we did not Petition for all the Non-Swearing Clergy and Laity as well as for the Bishops.

This Consideration may in some measure qualifie the Heat of the Examiner, who says,P. 6. that the Petitioners appearance for the Bishops, was more than a Tacit Reflection on others who took the Oaths. Now, as we have Sworn to the Government our selves, [...] it is hard Language to say that we meditated an Affront to our Fellow-Sub­jects for having done the same. I know not what our Author means by the word Appearance, but if we take him speaking according to a very usual Phrase, we cannot but complain of his Uncharitable intimation, which, how­ever is as good Argument as to aver, that in King Edward's days, the ap­pearance of any moderate Person for Bishop Hooper, who scrupled the Cano­nical Habit, was more than a Tacit Reflection on the other Bishops who had no such scruple: This I am apt to believe in our Examiners Opinion, would be positive severity, and he is too partial to allow it to be over kind in the present Case; and indeed this reasoning is on all occasions destructive of Mer­cy, and of all Acts of Grace and Dispensation, and touches in some degree (if with Virgil's Shepherd, we may presume to compare great things with small) even upon the measures of the Prince and Parliament, with respect to a ge­neral Act of Indempnity; for at this Rate, because they entertain a mixt crowd of sinners into Favour, they must consequently reflect on those who need no Pardon. And whereas he tells us, our Appearance was Hearty and Zealous; I suppose he will admit that such Epithets usually belong to Honest Men, since they Import, that we were neither Fawning Hypocrites, nor Tem­porizing Flatterers.

Our Examiner has these words: If the Church, says he,P. 4. were at the point of Ruin for want of the suspended Bishops, the Ex­ercise of their Offices; if the Succession of our Hierarchy, derived to this day without interruption, were thereby in hazard of being broken off; if there were no where in England to be found Men capable to hand down to our Posterity the Doctrine of the Gospel but they; then it had been not only Pardonable, but in some sense, necessary to use all possible means, and even those out of the ordinary Road, in Order to their re-Establishment.

That we were not wanting of very good and very reverend Men to supply the vacant Sees, is, I confess, most true; and His Majesties care to fill the Orb of our Church with bright Luminaries, has demonstrated to the World, that the recess of six or seven Bishops, could not interrupt the succession of our Hierarchy, or stop the Efficacy of sound Doctrine, so that our Church was in no danger of an Eclipse; and the Gospel, God be prais [...]d, will be ha [...]d [...]d [Page 18] to Posterity by able and painful Preachers, even tho our Examiner were not of the Number; of whose Inclination to the Bishops and Clergy suspended and not suspended, I shall give some tolerable account in other Places. And al­tho I might refer the Reader to the Proviso's, to interpret the design of what our Author offers in this place, yet it may be observed that those Emi­nent Persons, who succeeded to the late Bishops, as they did it with great regret and sorrow, so they would not only have bin well content, but very joyful too, if their Predecessors, who they allow to be of the indelible Character, could have entertain'd the favour for which we Petitioned, and thereby continu'd fix't Stars in our Horizon: And truly the Clergy of our Church were altoge­ther as desirous as the Gloucestershire Grand-jury, that the Fathers should upon like reasonable terms have bin re-instated; as is apparent from a proceed­ing in the Convocation, where a Petition, as I have been inform'd, was in agitation on their behalf.

For such a favo [...]r, and for such alone our Subscribers Petitioned, bearing a submissive deference to his Majesties Service and Inclination, who was to grant it; and respecting also, as has bin before intimated, a suppos'd readiness in those for whom we Petitioned, both to have accepted, and to have esteemed it a Favour, and to have done their part to entertain and preserve it; which as it would necessarily have imply'd some certain security, consisting with His Majesties Honour, as well as their own Consciences, so we cannot be suppos'd to have desired it out of any affront and disservice to His Majesty or them: And if there could be no such security propos'd or accepted, the Petitioners declar'd their good Will; and they have this effect of their Petition, that they calmly endeavour'd the Peace and Union of our Church, and publish'd them­selves King William's Loyal Subjects, and it is none of their fault, that all others are not so too.

But why do's our Examiner affirm, that their Re-establishment would have bin out of the ordinary Road? It must, I confess, have bin by Act of Parliament, but that is a Road His Majesty do's ordinarily Travel in; and how can one, de­priv'd by Statute, be otherwise restor'd? But we were hopeful, says he,Id. there were no such miseries impending upon our Church thro the Bishops Suspension, as the fear of them should oblige Us to break thro Laws and Acts of Parliament, meerly for their sakes. Very re­verendly observ'd! And yet, what does our Author mean by the word Us? must we consider him in his Pluralities, both as an Examiner, and as a Clergy-man, or rather must we consider him as another Araunah, giving like a King, some great matters to the King? He do's indeed afford His Majesty a joynt Authority, and therefore adds the following words, viz. Which is the thing the Grand jury of Gloucester, by their Address, would have the King to do: So that our Author either thinks himself a King, or at least his Companion; and as I and the King was the Aspiring Wool [...]y's Language, so Us and the King is the Examiners Motto.

But leaving the right Doughty and Puissant Prince Us to himself, the Rea­der may please to observe, that the Import of our Address to King William, was in short, no other, than that he would have granted a Favour to the Bishops in the like Form he intended to dispense his General Pardon, which was by Act of Parliament; and for our Examiner to assert, that we there­fore Petitioned him to break through Laws and Acts of Parliament, is as sen­sibly apply'd, as to say, that our Clergy-man do's break thro his own Church when he first opens the Door with the proper Key, and then passes in State and Gravity to the Altar.

The Reflecter says, that the Deprived Bishops have taken an Oath of an harder Construction to the former Kings,P. 7. the last whereof was a profest Papist. But do's he in his present Zeal re­flect on the whole Nation, who took Oaths to the former Kings, even all that swore Allegiance to King Charles II. and was the Oath they Swore to him of an harder Construction, than that we have taken to their present Maj [...]sties? Besides, tho the late King James was a profest Papist, yet he was received and accounted our lawful King before. Now, an Oath of Allegeance to a lawful King cannot, according to our Reflecter, be of an hard Construction: and if our Bishops are now scrupulous of taking an Oath, because they think it of an hard Construction, what reason is there to imagine they were less Conscientious, formerly, then they are under his present Majesty? Can we think King William, or Queen Mary, (notwithstanding the Confidence of a late Pseudo-martyro­logist) are better pleas'd with those that would have Dethron'd their Father, and set up an Intruder, destructive of their Title to the Succession, than with such as adher'd to him in Opposition to Monmouth? who were there of the Re­flecters Party that appear'd for his present Majesty, when that unfortunate great Man strove for the Crown? the Subscribers are not of the Bishops judg­ment, in refusing the Oaths, but hope at least, if they deserve not to be pittied because they cannot overcome their scruples, that they ought not however to be stun'd with a Reflection for their former Fidelity and Loyalty before the Abdication, which was indeed of an hard Construction when they maintain'd it, tho they suffer'd so much for it.

Our Author demands,P. 8. what difference there is between Dissa­tisfaction and Disaffection. I hope I may tell him without consul­ting his Concordance, that every Doubt do's imply Dissatisfaction, tho not Disaffection.

In short, Dissatisfaction is grounded on the understanding and reason, Disaf­fection in the will and Passions: And thus much to our Reflecters question in General, I shall now consider it with a Particular regard to our present Case.

It is apparent, that the Bishops Non-complying with the Government, and refusal to Swear, proceeded from a dissatisfaction in their minds, arising from certain Scruples, which as I did not pretend to examin, so do I not now de­sire to wade into such Niceties; but if they could have accepted a Favour on the Condition for which we petitioned, I know not how they could have bin disaffected in all points, where the Reflecter thinks they are dissatisfied. I am sure Disaffection cannot but improve; and if any of the Persons for whom we Petitioned, have combin'd with the Enemies of our Nation, and endeavoured to render others dissatisfied; by this plain disaffection, they have put themselves out of the capacity of the Favour for which we Petitioned, and they may be said to be as much dissatisfied with our Petition as with the Government. I do not at present much concern my self to know, whether there be any such, or who they are; how­ever, supposing some or all of them would have thought it no Priviledge to have accepted the Grace, I pray of what great Iniquity were the Subscribers guilty in endeavouring to reconcile them to a just opinion of his Majesties Favour, or in humbly Petitioning the great Arbiter of Justice and Mercy, that a Dispen­sation might be granted to such of the Fathers, as would render themselves ca­pable of enjoying the Indulgence, and give in exchange the Testimony and Assurance of their peaceable Deportment?

Was it reasonable in the Reflecter and his Party to contract and engross the Favour of Kings, or dutiful in them to set limits to the Royal Bounty, and prescribe to their Majesties as if on a Journey, where they shall Lodge, and Dine? Or was it fair that their Fellow-Subjects should partake of the Courtesie [Page 20] of their snarling, and be expos'd to the sorry condition of the poor Brethren of Lazarus, who are kept off from asking an Alms by the terrour of a Swit­zer's Moustache, or by the more incorrigible rudeness of the Porter's Dog.

The Reflecter's deep reach discovers great dangers lurking in the Bishops Restoration,Pag. 7. &c. whenas if our Petition had been granted by Authority, and the terms thereof accepted by the suspended Fathers, none of the Subscribers I know of could have imagined or suspected any such danger could have accrued to King William and the Govern­ment; and we did bonâ fide subscribe with the same Proviso (sincerely meant tho not exprest) which was used by the State of Rome, when a Dictator or Con­sul was intrusted with extraordinary Authority, Videat ne quid detrimenti Res­publica (i. e. our present Settlement) capiat, referring to his Majesties pleasure, knowing better the duty of Subjects than to have born minds so huffish as to have been dissatisfy'd with a denial; and as Mephibosheth, when slandered by Ziba to King David, answered, no otherwise than, My Lord the King is an Angel of God, do therefore what is good in thine Eyes: So did we; and what harm in this?

An upright honest intention and good meaning will (notwithstanding all Glosses and Reflections to make it odious) be still the same, and pass and be approv'd by the searcher of Hearts, and all disinteressed Persons, when the dissembling reaches of such as serve a base interest will be brought to nought.

The Reflecter tells usPag. 16. he cannot apprehend how the Bishops, if they had been restored could have Governed their Churches: I am sorry so good a Friend of the Bishops should be at a loss to determin what would have been the necessary Effects, Proviso's and Conditi­ons of the Favour if granted. He may be well assured that neither he nor his Clergy-man (tho they seem to bid fair for the hopes of Preferment) would not have been entrusted with the Commission of holding extraordinary Visita­tions in their Diocesses. It is our comfort the late Vacancies are fill'd with men of Piety, Learning and Integrity, under whose Government the Notorious ma­lice of our Author and his Chaplain, who have abused all our Bishops in gene­ral, will receive no great encouragement.

What has been already said may in some sort prevent the Re­flecter's fears ofPag. 8. Dissention in Parliament, Faction on the Bi­shops Bench, Obstruction of Votes for his Majesties service; To which I shall only add, that as the Bishops were not over fond of their Seats in Parliament, having relinquisht them before the Act cast them out; so it would be vanity to charge them with matter of Fact on that account; and therefore let the R [...]flecter be as Liberal of his Censures as he pleases, the Subscribers have little occasion to value his spight; since the good Father whose interest they more part cularly espous'd has by his Christian and prudent Comportment si­lenced the loudest Calumnies, and rendered as his Character irreprovable, so his person belov'd and pitied by generous spirits. Nor is it a secret, and there­fore I shall presume to publish it (Pace Reverendi Patris) that he does make as great a scruple to disturb the present Settlement, as he hath hitherto made in the Affair of the Oath. And thus as I hope, the two great Prelates of Glou­cester will be good Friends on Earth, I am sure they will be no Enemies in Hea­ven. In fine, God Almighty seems to bespeak them both in the Language of Joseph to the Ten Sons of Jacob, You shall not see my Face unless your Brother be with you.

But the Reflecter had an Eye upon the Revenues as well as the Government of the Church, and gravely tells usPag. 19., he was willing the Non-jurors should be allowed as large Revenues as they had [Page 21] before they were Bishops. We should have thankt our Author for this sudden kindness, if it had not been too luxuriant to be sincere; for in the same breath he seems to grudg at what he before granted, and adds as a La­bel to the Favour,Idem. Tho there are, saith he, Hundreds in the Work of the Lord who have scarce maintenance for themselves and Families.

If by his Hundreds in the work of the Lord we are to understand the poor Clergy of our National Church, we could in a whisper tell him of some such that have had Augmentations; but because it was not done to be seen of men, it is not to be further spoken of. If he means the Episcopal Clergy of Scotland, we could remind him of a certain spirit of Moderation that has endeavoured to make a clean House in that Kingdom. But if he means, as some may be apt to guess, Dissenting Preachers, 'tis true there has been complaint that the Root of all Evil is growing even among their Saints, and that in these hard times they may serve the Hundreds in the work of the Lord as the Reflecter did the Petition, viz. hold their hands. Some may be apt to think, that the Revenues of our Bishops would have done good service in saving the Pu [...]ses of their zea­lous Votaries; time was they could seize on the Church-Revenues for that use. But for the Bishops to be restored to their Revenues, was rather the desire of their Friends than their Avarice; nor did the Subscribers of our Grand-Jury exemplifie their Petition in this particular. Indeed the Parliament, as I before hinted, were pleased to allot them, when his Majesty should judg expedient, the third part of the Revenues of their Bishopricks, vacant by reason of their Non-conformity. 'Tis well the publick Conscience hath more Charity, than the narrow benevolence of some private spirits. But the humble request of one of the deprived Fathers was, that he might have liberty to employ himself, and to spend the remainder of his days in the work of the Lord, Gratis, without looking after the Revenue, and was therefore far from the ambition of expect­ing it without doing his Office. And tho he contemns the world (I mean in a devout sense) yet is he no Mendicant, nor hath he need to be stinted by our strait lac'd Reflecter, or creep to his insulting Adversary for a piece of bread.

The Reflecter having represented our Petition for the Bishops in a false light, is loth by his good will to leave them so much as the thin covering of a good name, which he thinks might recommend them to the charity of others; and therefore shews his little malice, by endeavouring to traduce the unspotted Fame which is justly due, and is as generally paid to their former merit; not unlike that testy Animal, which in vain bay's at the brightness of the Heavens.

He finds the Bishops esteem'd for two things, first their Go­vernment,Pag. 13. Pag. 14. secondly the good they did the Nation in the late Reign. The last he speaks to first, as being the hardest to deal with, reserving his Reflections on the other, as that which af­forded him larger scope to vilifie them, and coming last would make greater impression on the Readers; but tho he seeks with all cunning to lessen, yet it passeth his skill to eclypse their worth, and he does but more and more disco­ver his malevolence, and how much Envy prevails in the temper of his mind; for their Actions will be recorded, and they will shine as Stars in our Firma­ment, as long as any remembrance of those Transactions is continued to future Ages, when his Reflections shall be buried in Oblivion, which last will be no loss to the Reflecter's Reputation.

Envy (as is observ'd) is stir'd up by the sight; the Pictures he sees so fre­quently (when he comes into some honest mens houses) no doubt are a great Eye-sore to such Reflecters; and to perfect his zeal in the next Pamphlet he writes, he should inveigh against the Printers, Sellers and Buyers o [...] such Pi­ctures; [Page 22] for it may be they trouble him as much as the Petition for them.

He says, that he and his party were as ready to suffer for not reading the Declaration as the Bishops for Petitioning,Pag. 13. if they had been called to it. If the Reflecter be one of the Dissenting Party, as is more than likely from sundry passages in his Book; we may judge of the readiness of many of them to suffer for not reading King James's Decla­ration, by their thanks to him for it: but possibly they do not over-value the Bishops act of Suffering, because it gave so great a blow to Popery, which too many of the Addressors would rather let it (notwithstanding all their Clamors against it) than their lose sweet revenge upon the Church of England. Delenda est Carthago, and why must not the Remans give reason to the Allegory, and (as formerly) have the honour of the performance?

When he comes to Reflect upon their Government, he thinks he has matter enough to pacifie the rage of his Spleen, and to feed a Vulture that would o­therwise beak in upon his heart.

Their Predecessors excell'd them, and he and his party found the change,Pag. 14. not for the better but the worse; this is indeed very pleasant, if we consider what he before said, that they were known to him more by fame than sight or knowledg,Pag. 13. and that we had experience of the Government but of few of them. If this were true, how could our Author pretend to determine so Categorically against them with respect to their Predecessors? and if we are not to judge of Persons merit by Fame, why do we give credit to the Histories of former times which recorded their P [...]edecessors Government? and how will future Ages, that must be supposed to know things past not by sight, believe, that our Author speaks true,Pag. 14. when he affirms, he was provided of better men to succeed them?

Comparisons are odious, especially while any or most of the Persons are living, and therefore we leave a Theme which all ingenious men dislike, to such as he.

But was it not more maliciously than honestly done, to tax the Bishops for being Authors of encreasing the Faction in the Nation, and to lay at their door the Iniquity of those times, which was the effect of Jesuitical Counsels?

He tells us, as a part of their ill Government, what Preaching up of slavish Doctrines there had bin in their days,P. 15. ad nauseam, to Ruin us. In Reflecting on the Preaching of the Bishops and their Clergy, he do's not mean that against Popery, which the World knows, none did more stoutly oppose than the Church of England. If the Reflecter means Preaching up Arbitrary Power, when he saith, Slavish Obedience was Preach't to promote the design of Ruining us; he hath forgot what the Bi­shops were sent to the Tower and Tryed for: There will be Pick-thanks in all Ages, the present is not without a Reflecter.

It may be he means the Doctrin of Non-Resistance, as tho none but the six Bishops were guilty of that Primitive Heresie: But alas! This has bin reviv'd by the general practice of our Church; and we are not ashamed to own, that after the way which some call Heresie, we worship the God of our Fathers, and submit to our Princes; and the same Doctrine is implicitly enjoyn'd as in the 37th Article, so in the very first Canon of our Church, which commands all Licenc'd Preachers four times every Year, to declare, That the King within this Realm, is the Highest Power under God, to whom all Men, as well Inha­bitants, as Born within the same, do by God's Law, owe most Loyalty and Obe­dience. And of this Obedience, the Homilies which were set by Authority as a Pattern for Preachers, and the Whole Duty of Man, which is allowed by a great Opposer of this Doctrine, as one of the best Books in the World; do [Page 23] make that which we call the Passive, a Ligitimate Branch. To these Homi­lies, Articles and Canons, the Benefic'd Preachers do ex animo subscribe, as containing the setled Standard of Doctrine and Constitution, and therefore ought not to be blam'd for the doing that which on good grounds they think in Conscience is their Duty.

But truly, the Reflecter, notwithstanding all his cunning to hide him­self, do's unawares (through his Zeal) appear in his own Colours. He pretends Scandal only at the Bishops for whom we Petitioned, but he dis­covers his Hatred to all of that Order, even their Predecessors; for Bi­shops, Bishops are accused, and the Suspended Bishops must bear the blame. But, may we without Offence ask him a Question, of which he is free. Questions many times going for Arguments? And it may not displease, if we imitate him.

To Ridicule Non-Resistance, tho it may serve the turn of one Aspiring to the Throne as Monmouth, whether it will do him any Service that is setled in it? What security has that Prince, who depends on the Copricio of the Mob, and who are the best Artists to work upon their Humour?

These Queries I leave with the Reflecter, and proceed to consider his other Exceptions against the late Government of the deprived Fathers: For having with all imaginable Artifice, Painted forth the Prosecution (a milder word, says he, then a true Persecution) of the Dissenters, he lays it at the Bishops Door;P. 15. by which means he has Entituled himself to the Evil Spirit, mentioned in the Post script.

But I would willingly be inform'd, why this matter should be objected to the Suspended Bishops. Make the worst of the Case, and suppose they were en­gag'd in it; I pray were not the other Bishops concern'd in an equal Sphere of Action with them? Were none Prosecuted but in their Diocesses? None in or about the great City, which is the Jurisdiction of another Prelate? Were these the only Men that (according to our Authors Language) influenced all Justices and Sessions? Here again, Bishops are accused, and the Suspended must bear the blame. And yet, with the Reflecters leave, of all Bishops, the Suspended Fathers have least to answer for on that account. Some of them were not Bi­shops at that time; and if, I mistake not, one of them was then a Domestick Chaplain to the Princess at the Hague; and is it fair and plausible to force Men into the Catalogue, several Years before their time, upon no other Account but to Accuse, to Worry, and to Ridicule them? Some of his Friends will scarce allow them the courtesie of that Title, à Parte-Post, now they are de­priv'd; but Oh! The singular qualifications of the Reflecter! If he proceeds at this Rate, he may shortly assume the Power of altering Times and Seasons, and pretend to the extraordinary Spirit of Isaiah, who brought back the shadow of the Sun several degrees on the Dial of Ahaz.

The Subscribers cannot give an Account of things done in all places; yet it is known, that where some were liable to the Laws then ordered to be put in Execution, they found among the Bishops, those, who, to their Power, not on­ly stood between them and the Penalty, but paid the Pecuniary Mulct for them. Others in the very heat of the Prosecution, did frequently testifie against the tendency of many Proceedings. It is apparent enough, by whose Policy, and by what Agents, the grand Extremities were set on Foot, and carried on; their design was to render our Church-Governors, and Church too odious, and this the Reflecter Prosecutes, they were not to reduce and gain Dissenters, but to make the breach wider between us, and what good effect of them in gain­ing any, could be look'd for, when the Separatists were underhand encouraged [Page 24] and supported in their Obstinacy? And is it not an Invidious Slander, to charge the Bishops to have bin both Councellors and Overt-actors in them? It is worthy our consideration, whether they may be Branded as Persecutors, under the cover of whose wings the French Protestants obtain'd a Sanctuary, from what was really a Persecution, they found our Spiritual, to be instead of Natural Fathers, their Palaces an Asylum of Refuge; so that those poor Suf­ferers, besides a grateful resentment of the great Charity and Bounty which supported their Languishing Spirits, gave Praise to God, that their Eyes were opened, and the mistakes and prejudices raised in them, by the Evil Reports and Slanders of our Adversaries, were removed.

But truly, the Hugonots were never so far deluled, as to give Credit to the false Colours, with which our Reflecter and other Masters of misrepresentation have Painted forth Her Bishops: For about the time of the Prosecution, when several Nonconformists had fallen foul on Dr. Stillingfleet, for Preaching a very Orthodox Sermon, and spar'd neither Art nor Pains, not only to justifie their Schism, which they recommended as the Darling of Heaven, but at the same time to Vilifie the Establishment of our Church, as Unedifying, Superstitious and Tyrannical: Monsieur de l' Angle, one of the Ministers of Charenton near Paris, in his Famous Letter to the Bishop of London, in which he exprest his hearty Prayers to God, that he would open the Dissenters Eyes, to see the weakness of their Reasons, upon which they grounded an afflicting Separation, did with joy conclude, that by a wonderful Blessing of God, our Espiscopal Sees were filled with excellent Servants of God, who loved Jesus Christ, and who had all the Qualities of the Head and Heart for a general Union; to which in the Post-script he subjoyn'd, that his excellent Collegue Monsieur Claude did subscribe with all his Heart to the same opinion.

Here, we may take a just occasion to observe the Sally, which the Reflecter makes upon the Clergy,P. 20. who have taken the Oaths. He Carps at them, for their choice of Convocation-men, and for returning to their old stiffness, tho, he says, they were for some time more limber and yeilding to an Union with Dissenters. I have discours'd some of the Electors on this point, and by what I find the Reflecters pleading for Dissenters, is no more to be blam'd, then for Carthegus to plead for Cataline; and tho, in their choice of Convocation-men, they had an Eye to such as would not betray the Church of England, yet it may be excused, when 'tis considered what has bin done in Scotland, and if this do's anger those who are Enemies to our Constitution, yet I hope it is no great offence to it's Friends,

But, why is this passage brought in by the Reflecter, whose Text obliges him not to ramble, or lead his Reader from the deprived Fathers? Can this be assign'd as a miscarriage of their former Government? Or are they now just­ly chargable on this account, as though it were done by them, or by their in­stigation? Must they be suppos'd to neglect a duty of which the Law renders them uncapable, or intrude into the Province of the other Bishops? He might as well accuse them for not appearing the last Session in Parlia­ment,P. 7. and alledge for his Reason, that the Conforming Bishops are bound in Honour and Conscience, to Vote for the Interest of His Majesty. On the other hand, what reason has he to reflect on the Bi­shops, who have taken the Oaths, or to affront the conforming Clergy, who in their choice of Convocation-men, usually pay some deference to the senti­ments of their Diocesans; and who (without flattery) Elected many Learned and Pious Men, of which 'tis well known, that Reverend Assembly was, for the [Page 29] most part composed. It is plain and evident, that the Dart is thrown against our Bishops and Clergy, both depriv'd, and not depriv'd, and the depriv'd [...]a­thers must bear the blame. The promise of our Bishops is by him insisted on, as a matter not fully pursued. Bu [...], by whom is it not pursued? 'Tis not pur­sue [...] by the Suspended Bishops, for that's impracticable: 'Tis not pursued by the other Bishops and their Clergy; for they have not yet found out a just expedient: His accusation of these, is both a great length from his Subject, and proves him to be destitute of good Manners: His reflecting Insinuations against the others, is meer spight and impertinence, and evidences him to be sometimes hurried beyond the Sphere of Reason. I am sure the whole has ve­ry little of the Spirit of God, which he says, is a Spirit of Love, and of Peace.

I have bin at some thoughts, to know why our Author should bestow his en­vious Reflections on all our Bishops and Clergy in general. But, I find he is resolv'd to do it at any rate, and at the same time, to ward off their resentment with an hardned Brow; so that we have the less reason to admire, why the careless and positive Man should d [...]clare, that he, and his party, never took the worst Character (the Bishops and their Friends gave of them) at any time, to be any dishonour to them.P. 4. [...]y th [...]s Excursion, our Reflecter has out done Malice it self, and did not allow him­self the leisure to reflect on what an Heathen left on Record, Neglig [...]re q [...]id d [...] se quisque sentiat non solum Arrogantis est, sed omnino diss [...]luti. I am sure his Assertion leads him within the compass of this Dilemma, either the worst Cha­racter the Bishops and their Friends gave of him, are no dishonour to him, because 'tis true: Or the Bishops and their Friends are Notorious for Lying, and Reviling the Brethren, which last part of the Dilemma, the impartial World will not easily believe.

The Reflecter finding the Parliament had cut the Gordian-knot, which could not be unty'd by a Convocation, and wherein, no doubt, he was bound to the good behaviour with the rest of his Brotherhood (for 'tis not Union with our Church, as is the specious pretence, but the Liberty of Acting and Speaking against her, which too many really desire) endeavours to ingratiate himself and his Party with them, in the like confident manner, as he has affronted the other. We do, saith our stately Reviewer, much approve of the Act of Ease and Indulgence of Protestant Dissenters,P. 15. made by our wise King and great Convention, at which foregoing Par­liaments offer'd, but Popery was too great a Favorite to receive a check by the Liberty of Protestants.

I may again demand? why is this objected to the Bishops, as a part of their ill Government, unless he would Suggest, that they hind'red the passing a Bill of Ease and Indulgence of Protestant Dissenters, and did it out of Favour to Popery? If this be not, what is our Reflecters meaning? And if it be, 'twill, I hope, be no contempt to the Wisdom and Authority of the Government, if I affirm, that among the abuses of the gracious Act of Indulgence to Dissen­ters, this insolent Slander upon our Bishops, is but one of a Thousand. In­deed it is very severe, and no less strange, that they who have done, and suf­fered so much in defence of the Protestant Religion, should be still represente [...] as Favorers of Popery; their Enemies know well, what vertue there is in this, to raise upon them the greatest Odium, and to Sacrifice them to the Popular Fury: For the Examiner has given us a notable hint of a great Leviathan, ca [...]led the Mob. Is it not manifest, that the Papists Laboured hard for an Act of Indul­gence, and how mu [...]h they depended on it, Coleman tells us, and when they had the Power, they granted it, tho against Law, to serve the same ends; in pursuance of which, they had before pu [...]loyn'd the draught of the Act of [Page 30] Indulgence, which separate from their Interests, had passed the two Houses of Parliament. If the Bishops were at any time against a general Toleration, it was to prevent the advantage, that was seen the Papists would make of it. Could these be Agents for Popery and against it too? In the late Reign, did not the Papists and many of the Dissenters, draw in the same Yoak, to the apparent Ruin of the Protestant Religion, 'till they saw their Error, when his present Majesty opened their Eyes? And were they not confounded at the Re­flection of their Actions, and are they not yet, when truly serious, amazed at their folly? did they not promise to serve the ends of Arbitrary and Cruel Persecutors? How did the Bishops then bestir themselves? How did they La­bour to prevent that Ruin, which the two Factions, who had bit on the same Wax with their Teeth, were active to bring on the Protestant Religion? And yet the Bishops must he Favourers of Popery. Methinks a rational Man should he ashamed to offer such inconsistences, not to say contradictions, which, like Phlegm, spit against the Wind, Recoil back into our Authors own Face.

I cannot in this place, but observe, how artificially the Romish Factors have thrown out their own guilt upon our Church, and we may admire, how far they have bin Credited, tho against plain matters of Fact. Thus King James, after his coming to the Throne, was pleased to Declare, that it had bin his con­stant sense and opinion, that Conscience ought not to be constrained, nor Peo­ple forc't in matters of Religion; and that it was ever directly contrary to his Inclinations, and yet notwithstanding, the formality of this pretence, there are many in our Nation, who can testifie, with what heat and application they were incited, and prompted, by the same Persons, to put the Penal Laws in Execution in his Brother's days. And therefore, as the last Prosecution of the Dissenters, was a plain design of the Court, and not of our Church; so I could tell our Reflecter, how severely some of our Bishops were reprimanded, for refusing to comply with many inordinate Commands dispatch'd to them, which they knew, were not design'd to reform, but to inflame the Parties,

In short, If the Avarice of the Chancellors (for there are ill Men in all Com­munions,) if the Huxtry of Informers; for such Penal-Law Mongers have bin frequent in all Ages: If the underworking of the Jesuits; for Father Campi [...]n has promis'd us, that our Nation shall never be free from their Contrivances: If finally, the Letter of Express Statutes drawn to it's utmost fineness, did pinch those of the separate Commonions, to the enacting of which, their own former designs and practices against the Government gave a colourable ground; let not the Bishops be esteemed the Projecters and Councellors of those unhap­py troubles: For, altho it be agreable to the Principles of many, who would be thought the only good Protestants, to Prosecute for meer Conscience, which is too apparent, as from the Barbarities of New-Engl n [...], so from our former sequestrations, and the late Scottish Severities against the Episcopal Clergy, whose cries have penetrated the very Rocks and Flints of that hardned Coun­try; yet by the Doctrine of our Church, all Exorbitant, and Bloody, and Revengeful Proceedings, which tend rather to the Ruin of Mens Persons and Estates, than the Salvation of Souls, are justly condemned: And, whereas the Reflecter enquires, whether any of the Bishops (Oh! General Challenge.P. 16.) have ever shewed any dislike of Severities, or wish'd for the mitigation of the Laws, under which the Dissenters smar­ted. I may direct him for satisfaction, in this Case, to the the Articles recom­mended by our late Lord Primate Sancroft, to the Bishops within his Metro­politan Jurisdiction; where, among many other serious Admonitions, he ad­vised them and their Brethren, the Clergy, to walk with wisdom, towards those that are not of our Communion; and if there be in their Parishes any such, that [Page 31] they neglect not frequently to confer with them in the Spirit of Meekness, seeking by all good ways and means to gain and win them over to our Communion. More espe­cially, that they have a very tender regard to our Brethren, the Protestant Dissenters; that, upon occasion offer'd, they visit them at their Houses, and receive them kindly at their own, and treatithem fairly where-ever they meet them, discoursing calmly and civily with them, persuading them, if it may be, to a full compliance with our Church; or, at least, whereto we have already attain'd we may all walk by the same Rule, and mind the same Thing; and, in order hereunto, that they take all op­portunity of assuring and convincing them, that the Bishops of this Church are really and sincerely irreconcilable Enemies to the Errors, Superstitions, Idolatries and Ty­rannies of the Church of Rome; and that the very unkind Jealovsies, which some of them had of us to the contrary, were altogether groudless; and, in the last place, they warmly and most affectionately Exhort them to joyn with us in daily fervent Prayer to the God of Peace, for an universal Ʋnion of all Reformed Churches, both at Home and Abroad, against our Common Enemies; and that all they who do confess the Holy Name of our Dear Lord, and to agree in Truth of the Holy Word, may also meet in one Holy Communion, and live in perfect Ʋnity and Godly Love.

Here was a truly Christian and treatable Spirit; here was an advice a­greeable to the Design of the Gospel; and though it be a morsel which the Keflacter cannot swallow, yet is it a necessary Viand to such whose Employ­ment it is to administer the Eucharistic Feasts. To conclude, though we do not agree with the Reflecter, either in Affection to the Church of England or the Bishops, yet we will be in Charity with him and the Dissenters, and tell him plainly (though he taxes our Convocation with Stifness, and sentences the Bishops of our Church, to a Title something softer than that of real Per­secutors) that no geod Churchman does begrudge the Indulgence granted to them, if they use it with Prudence and acknowledge the Favour: Nor is he against any Expedient of Union, if we knew what would satisfie and what was practicable, provided the Protestant Religion might be preserv'd, and no gap left open to let in swarms of Sects, Atheism, and, it may be, Popery and Contempt of all that is Sacred.

Another main flight of the Reflecters Zeal against the deprived Bishops, which I must not pass by, is,P. 17. that they did not publish a satisfactory Answer, to the Modest Inquiry in Vindication of themselves. But, certainly they had little reason to call him, who writes a Vindication of those who oppos'd the Petition for them, to help them to make their own, not knowing, but he might have a hand in Composing the Inquiry (which may now pass for no idle suspicion, since he appears so concern'd at their Reply to it) then indeed they had bin well Vindicated, when the Accuser of the Brethren, was become their Advocate. He acknowledges, they declared against Plotting, and in another place, that he believes, they would be peaceable. What Reason then, and what Christianity did prompt our two modest Gen­tlemen to wound them with their Pens, against whom nothing at that time did appear worthy such sharp usage?

'Tis not, I confess, my design to Vindicate the late Conduct of one or more of the Bishops: They are Men, and may not only have failings, but be guilty of matters of a worse tendency, and so may others who have taken the Oaths. However, the Question is not, whether they have not of late receded from their former avowed Innocency; but whether their reply to a former Ac­cusation was not full and to the purpose: For all Impeachments are Retro­grade, and respect matters of Fact perform'd and done, and not what are wrapt up in the Bosom of Futurity: So that if they were not guilty of what was then thought worthy to be objected to them, the Accusation was frivolous: if any [Page 32] of them have since bin guilty of any thing, for which they may now be Accu­sed, as our Diocesan and others (we hope) are remote from such an Affliction; so the old Accusation, however, do's not Operate against any of them, unless we admit our Adversaries Cavils, which were (as was also their own Vindi­cation and our Address and Apology for them) published before the Miscar­riage of the late su [...]pected Prelate, to carry with them the faculty of St. Ka­tharine, the Goddess of the Dominicans, who was of such a meritorious scent, that she could smell Sinners at a distance. But I must return to the merits of the former Accusation, and consider it with relation to the Bishops.

When the Author of an Inquiry (modest or immodest, let the Reader judge) had persuaded the World, that the then Summers Disquiet proceeded from their fatal influences on the public Affairs, the deprived Bishops, who were Resident near London, published a Declaration, to obviate the loud Calumny, and to reconcile the Scruples of more moderate Men. The Reflecter, to raise an Unchristian Jealousie in Mens minds, was pleased to make a reply, which, in effect, was nothing else (tho painted with some malicious flourishes) than that albeit they declared, as it were, open war against the French Monarch, yet they did not with the same Breath, publish a solemn Defiance against King James. But (with submission) what occasion was there at that time (when the French Fleet manned with French Seamen, and Souldiers, and Armed with a French Commission, Rod on our Coasts) of declaring against any thing but what was French? Or why must the Bishops be more forward than the Par­liament, who, as one of the Members, observ'd, make no mention of King James? Indeed it was then all the Noise, that the French Forces were to have made way for the late Kings Re-establishment: If, therefore the Bishops de­clared against the attempts of the French upon our Nation, they protested consequently; and this was all that could be required, against all the comforts the Abdicate Prince could derive from the success of that Invasion.

But, there is not only ill Reasoning, but a great deal of ill Nature in this pretence of the Reflecter, which I may Illustrate by a plain and familiar in­stance. Put the case, a Peasant of Picardy or Champaign, in his way to Mar­ket, where he is carrying some Fruit, or Provisions, be met by a Party of an adjoyning Garrison, who, without much enquiry into the Countrymans way of Life, or any other decent Ceremony, drag him before the Governor, and acqua [...]nt his Lordship, that the Peasant was surpriz'd by them, as he was con­veying Supplies, or Intelligence to the Confederate Camp. The poor Man pro­tests his Innocency, and yet can gain no Credit: He tells the examining Monsieur, and the Reflecting Dragoons, that he never held Correspondence with the Dutch, Spaniards, Germans, or English, and that he could produce as rea­sonable Proofs of his integrity as the Case would admit, and therefore prays his enlargement. The Governor, having imposed silence on the poor Man, replies sharply to him, that if this was all he could say for himself, he should certainly suffer, and so, in brief, amuses him with a Sentence after this sort. Friend, says he, thou tellest me? thou holdest no Intelligence with the Kings Enemies of this side of the Nation, but thou do'st not affirm, thou had'st never Correspondence with the Vaudois or Savoyers; so that thy Declaration is insincere, and thou shalt Die for it. Who would not cry out, O Senten­tiam n [...]cessitate confusam! Who would not Condemn the malitious Injustice, and be irreconcillable to the Decree? And indeed, tho no Simile can be ex­pected to run in all points an exact Parallel, the Bishops case was much the same; for being accus'd, as concurring to that Summers Enterprize of the French, they declared against that Scandal: But then some Reflecting Chri­stians replied to them, you are not to be believed on this account; for tho [Page 33] you declared against the French, who were on the Coasts of Suss [...]x, yet you did not declare against the late King, who was then with his Army in Ireland: You declare against all the mischief that may come from the South, but you declare not against the Storm which we think is brewing in the West: How­ever declare what you will, even against that too, we resolve to represent you to the Nation, as People unworthy, as of Favour, so of Credit too.

But let me presume so far as to examine, what crime these Bishops were ap­parently guilty of at that Conjuncture? Was it by their Magic, that so many Ships perish'd by the Rage of Tempests and other unlucky Casualties? Did they invite the French Privateers to disturb our Commerce, and afflict our Merchants? Did they Chain up our Men of War in the Road to Cadiz, when the Thoulon Fleet passed by in view of our Captains? Were they concerned in the unaccountable Conduct of Torrington, or in the loss the Dutch sustain'd in that sorry Engagement? Did they prevail with the Waters of the Shanon, to force our Soldiers from their Trenches before Limeri [...]? If neither these, nor other contrivances can be made out against them, we may reasonably conclude, that they were then bespattered, because the Father of Lies will still appear to be an Accuser of the Brethren. And 'tis no wonder he should blacken the Reputation of our Bishops, since he used the same Artifice against the Primi­tive Christians; for if Tyber o'er-flow'd its banks, if Nilus did not refresh the Meadows, or if any other Calamities were dispatch'd by Gods appointment to scourge the Nation; the usual and popular cry was Causa Christiani, Chri­stiani ad Leones; the Christians, tho innocent, were adjudged the Cause, and must therefore Die for the sins of the People.

I am confident, I may (if the Reflecter please) save him the trouble of a deep research into the Mystery of our late Visitations; for the important causes of our disquiet were our many monstrous abominations; and among them the Profane and Uncharitable Spirit of our Nation: The Treachery and Avarice of our Officers, the barefac'd Vindication of former Sacrilege and Rebel­lions, the crying Iniquity of the Scotish Rabling; the old Confessors St. Atha­nasius, and the Bishops of the Nice Council have receiv'd from the Champions of a revived Heresie: Our Calamities were Gods judgments and the Effects of our own follies; the Bishops were no more concern'd in them, then Elijah in the Famine of Samaria, or Innocentius in the Devastations committed at Rome by the Barbarous Goths. If any of them are since liable to accusation, their offences can with as little reason be charged on the rest of their Brethren, as the particular failures of Nicholas, could be imputed to Stephen, or the other Deacons of the Primitive Church. Should all of them be equally concern'd in the guilt, this do's not however overthrow their former Innocence, and so I have done with that point.

I cannot but with some pain, observe one more of the Reflecters base insinu­ations; for he gives out (as tho he was Secretary of State to the Almighty Searcher of Hearts) that the Bishops retain their Principles which Govern their Non-conformity (not in a Ceremony but) in a main point of Obedience (as to their Majesties and the Laws) so also to Go [...]. But is not this spightful▪P. 16. to brand all the Non-swearing Bishops as h [...]ving Principles inconsistent with their Obedience to God, when Obedience to him, is by charitable Men, allowed to be the ground of their Nonconfor­mity to that, for which he takes the most advantage against them, viz. the Oaths. To this rude Censure, I shall oppose the Opinion o [...] that famous Casuist, who wrote the Wh [...]le Duty of Man: Tho, says that Author, My Conscience should Err in [...] me su [...] a thing were unlawful, y [...]t [...]o long as I were so persuaded, it were sin, for me to [...]o t [...]at thing, for, in that Ca [...], my Will [...] [Page 34] to the doing a thing which I believe to be displeasing to God, and God who judges us by our Wills, not Ʋnderstandings, imputes it to me as sin, as well as if the thing were in it self unlawful: I might apply and cite the judgment of other good Men in the same case, but I shall not cast such Pearls before our Reflecter, who perhaps, with others of the same Herd, may trample them under foot. Only, I would willingly know, whether he is so Cruel against every one that is not of his mind? I believe he would not be so virulent against some, who think all Oaths unlawful: If he is kind to them, and do's bear a regard to their scruple of Conscience, why is he so unmerciful in the present Case, and why are the Bishops Prosecuted (a milder word, then truly persecuted) by his In­vectives?

I confess, some Mens Consciences can serve as a Weather-Cock to their In­terest but the iniquity of Hypocrites, ought not to be thrown into the Ballance with the scruples of godly and serious Men, which we dare not believe, are so far the effects of profligate Humour and Passion, as to put a design'd affront on the great Omniscient Judge: And truly if we entertain the checks of Con­science, with a worse then Atheistical Indifference, and if by any strains of Wit, we can Interpret those pangs as Divine and Consolatory Raptures; let us no longer accuse Tallus Hostilius for placing Fear and Paleness among the Gods.

I must entreat the Readers Patience, to subjoyn one more of our Authors cogent Reasons against our Petition, which I had almost forgot, viz. P. 6. Because His Majesty is the best of Kings, and that we have had great Experience of his Clemency.

That His Majesty is the best of Kings, and that some of our Authors Party may from their great Experience, declare him to be such, we stedfastly be­lieve, and do therefore admire, since they enjoy so large a share in the Benefit of the Indulgence, for which we thank'd his Majesty, they should be so invidi­ous, as to bethink the same Royal favour and good Will of the Subscribers to­wards others. In truth, the Reflecter has an Awkard way of arguing, for his Reasons prove much on our part. Doubtless, the Kings Clemency is the strongest Reason to induce his Subjects to Petition: The Draught of Pardon, he sent down to the Parliament, His Gracious regard to tender Consciences, the other remarkable Emanations of his favour, encourag'd us to throw our selves prostrate at his Feet, as with our hearty thanks for his many Royal Concessions, so with our humble Address for our Diocesan and his Brethren, if they thought the favour compatable with his service. In fine, the Kings known Clemency, was not so much an Argument against our Petition, as a Foundation, to ground the Hopes of his Pardon and Indulgence to us, if our Petition were displeasing to him.

And truly, if I thought, that either the Proceedings of our Grand-Jury, or any thing I now propose in their Vindication, were inconsistent with the plain Honesty of a Christian, or the duty of a faithful Subject, I would readily beg Pardon of the meanest Reader; and, I may assure him, that I would never have undertaken the present task, had not some Persons assumed a plausible pretence from the circumstances of the deprived Bishops, to run out in an ex­travagant Excursion against our Church, and all our Bishops in general, and to ridi [...]ule many solid Truths derived from the Prophets and Apostles: But, I hope, the ensuing Chapter, will both discover the blackness of their Politiques, and satisfie the World, that the Men we deal with, are none of the best Chri­stians, Subjects, or Neighbours in the Nation.

CHAP. II.

I Have hitherto, with due Modesty, as I hope, examined our Adversaries main Cavils against our Address: I shall now consider their exceptions to the Apology, having bin da [...]'d to it by restless Men, who love to be raising up new occasions of dispute, which time and patience had rendred not altogether necessary.

The Reflecter acquainted the World, that he did not see the Apology, 'till his own Pamphlet was Printed. Whether this be true or no, the Reader has the choice of his thoughts, which yet, he may soon determine, if he please to consider, that the Reflecter recited the Gloucester-shire Address in the same Numeric words, as it was abbreviated in the Apology; and, whether by this step of our Author, we may not discover what sort of Ramble he intended to pursue, is left to the determination of honest Judges. Be it, however, true or false, the Reflecter shall with freedom gain that point, and therefore, saving in the Title Page and Postscript, the Apologist do's not conceive himself con­cern'd; but yet to do him reasonable Justice, he has considered, as his Argu­ments against our Address, so his other Malevolent Reflections.

The Examiner is the Person, with whom I shall now be more immediately concerned, he having Anatomiz'd the Apology with a merciless hand, and re­presented it as Ghastly as the Gorgon-Idea of his own Malice could make it. And truly, if our Author had taken the freedom to have exposed any Errors and Impertinences of that Pamphlet, without discovering much greater Inde­cencies of his own, I should have submitted to his Animadversions, as the ef­fect of a well designed Charity: But since his own Pen has fallen into an ex­cess of Riot, that gives scandal to sober Men, it can be never too late, either to express an abhorrence of his proceedings, or to expose the Baseness and Treachery of his Principles.

It is the advice of a Rhetorician, to such as compose or make Speeches, Sint Pulchra exordia, exitusque illustres. This Rule, our Scenical Divine has endeavoured to Copy; and therefore, that he might not loose the advantage­ous Character of being an absolute Railer, he fetches a long stroak, sparing neither the old Preachers of Righteousness before and after the Flood, nor the Family of Levi and Aaron under Moses's Oeconomy, nor St. Peter, nor St. Paul, nor their Successors under the Gospel, but joyns them in one Predicament with our Bishops and Churchmen. Our Poet indeed, do's, by a convenient figure, transfer the Odium of what he says, and does so far list his Mercenary Tongue, in the Service of profligate Wretches, as to publish his own Rancor against the holy Function, in words pretended to be borrowed from them. It has bin, says he,P. 2. the unhappiness of Men of our Profession, I mean the Clergy, whereof I have the honour to be one, that the World has in all Ages tax'd them with something of wilfulness and positiveness of humour beyond the rest of mankind.

O rare Bird, thus to defile his own Nest! The Atheist (who values him­self for insulting on the Parsons) will thank him for the Notion, and Satan has no need to be let loose, since the Examiner do's hold the Pulpit▪ and has made it the Chair of Scorners. Indeed▪ with respect to our Author, the Imputation is not altogether frivolous, and therefore let him scall'd his Lips with a Mess of his own Broth. But the good Man seems to imply, that the VVorld hath rea­son to tax God's Messengers of wilfulness and positiveness of Humor; and 'tis no wonder this should be our Fate, since our Saviour (who himself took part [Page 36] of the censure, and now suffers in his Members) assured his Disciples, that the VVorld would hate them, because they were not of this VVorld. They are obliged, by vertue of their Commission to Preach up Repentance, with all its Artillery of Sighs and Tears, and Mourning and Sorrow for sin and other vi­gorous Doctrines; and this is called humorsom Preciseness; they give us a dreadful Account of Death and of Judgment to come; and this surprizing Truth, which made Foelix tremble, is esteem'd the New Atlantis of Priest­craft. Let the Clergy be as positive as they please, the Men of the VVorld resolve to be as wilful on the other hand, and to drown the harsh D n of their musty Morals in the Charms of pleasure: Or if our young Danites must have the formality of a Chaplain to instruct them in the way to happiness, they will admit of no other Jonathan but the Examiner. The Path he finds out, is strewed with Violets, and with the blest Luxury of bountiful Nature; the Elizian Groves, to which he directs, abound with Balmy Fountains; and the Enchanted Lover, like Absalom, is often caught up from the Earth by Trees of Perfume, whil'st their Odoriferous Fruits drop into his Mouth: This is the Country they long for, and the Examiner is the Star that leads them to it, nor will they be oblig'd to any rules of severity, since Bacchus and Venus have their Priest, who is more Indulgent to them. The Enemies of the Clergy (to whom our Examiner has administred a new Topic of Railery) have a blest occasion to Cant, in favour of their Lewdness: But alas! They will be sensible of their mistake, when they receive their reward, and find that the Garlands which now adorn their Temples, and crown their Cups, are too weak an Amule: against darting Flames. In the mean time, let our Clergy-man know, that what he calls an Unhappiness, one of a greater Authority has Proclaim'd to be a Blessing: For Christ says, Blessed are ye, when Men shall revile you, and perse­cute you, and speak Evil of you falsely for my sake; Rejoyce and be exceeding glad, for so Persecuted they the Prophets which were before you: And which of the two, either our Saviour, or a Profane Clergy-man, we are to believe, let a Chri­stian judge.

Our Examiner, according to the Rhetors advice, has made a fair beginning, how he proceeds to carry on the Frolic, shall be the Subject of our Inquiry.

He tells me in several places, that a Club of the Clergy were the Authors both of the Address and of the Apology;Pag. 4, &c. but who those Clergy-men were, he does not pretend to inform us, so that i [...] the dark mist of Error the Examiner is left by himself. And, I may ass [...]re the world, I had no assistance from him, tho he pretends to be one of that Coat. But why must the Clergy be the Authors? Alas! the reason is plain; for our Ex­aminer whose design is to blacken our Church, calls himself at present a Cler­gy-man on purpose to give his Brethren a Judas Kiss: for as there is no such wound as that of a Friend; so he first represents the Apology as a most wicked illegal thing, and then throws it at the Clergy's door, acquain­ting the world that tho they took the Oaths themselves,Pag. 7. yet they are far greater Enemies to the present Settlement than those who refused them. Here is a Specimen of our Examiners Charity attending a Positive Declaration of a matter both false and malicious!

Indeed were the old Law of the Persians in force among us, that for a third Lye a mans tongue should be condemn'd to silence, our Author would be never subject to the frailty of spreading any more falshoods; for besides his many vile Suggestions on other Accounts, he has repeated this ridiculous Forgery beyond that setled number of Times; and yet after the full Extravagance (and what can be more odious than a Lye?) our Examiner whipes his Mouth, and is con­fident he has done no harm, especially since he thinks he has added to the Re­proach of the Clergy.

In Truth our Levite contrived his design to the best advantage; the Clergy must be the most wilful and the most positive part of Mankind; and then they must be the Authors of the Apology; and this last story might have past cur­rent, if the declaration I solemnly made in the Epistle prefixt to the Apology, had not ptevented the ridiculous pretence; and indeed our Author thought it advisable not to be too curious in examining that Epistle; but bestows some Personal Refl [...]ctions which are nothing to the purpose, and makes such Bar­barous Exceptions as prove him to be rather a man of the world, than one of that Tribe which the world does unjustly condemn to the name of Wilful and Positive.

He tells me, that the People I called a restless Faction, being Enemies to our Address, were the whole Nobility,Pag. 7, 8. Gentry and Commons of England except a few of my own stamp; this is a misrepresentation with a witness; the words in the Epistle, to which he refers, are of a different tendency; they reflect on those fanciful men, who not only called us a Popish Jury, but impos'd so far on their Neighbours as to make them believe, that the Clergy of Norfolk had by some Subterranean Vault past to Gloucester, and there consulted with their Brethren of our Diocess, how they should give the Examiner a new occasion to refine.

Another thing observable in the Ex [...]miner is,Pag. 14. that I did not pursue the Apology in a just and true notion of the word; for he demands why an Apology for the suspended Bishops their refusing the Oaths, and yet not diving into the reasons why they will not take them?

I might, if it were worth while, inform the Reader, that according to the Original Manuscript the Title of the Pamphlet did directly and in express words, point to an Enquiry into the nature and tendency of the late Addresses, together with a Vindication of that which was preferred by our Grand-Jury in favour of the Suspended Bishops; but whereas the Objection is leve [...]'d (as indeed it could not otherwise be) against the Title of the Printed Copy, I think it reasonable to explain its design.

There are two Cheats, which lie couched in our Examiner's Question; He thereby intimates, first, that I meant a justification of their Scruples; and se­condly, that I intended to publish the Reasons of their Refusal, if I had pur­sued the dictates of our Examiner in these cases, I had, as he else­where up braids me,P. 13. accused rather than Apologiz'd for the suspended Bishops, and the Apology would have deserv'd the Title of Modest as little as an Inquiry falsely so called. Our Author was not insensible how open such a Discourse would have expos'd me, not only to his own lash, but to the public censure, and was therefore pleased to give me this fly Challenge, and to father his own wrong notions upon me, by foisting an Addition into the Title of the Apology, intimating that I frofest to Apolog [...]ze for the Bishops refusal of the Oaths; but truly, as it could be no crime against the Government, to be guilty of such an Omission, so it was no wonder I did not pursue a Cause, to wh [...]ch I had as little inclination as pretence.

And therefore I Answer, that the same Motives which prevail'd with the Grand jury to Address, directed me (or at least, ought to have bin my guide) to the properest Mediums in framing the Apology, what those were, have bin already publ [...]shed; and, to assist the Examiners Memory, I now tell him, they were a tender regard to Conscience, and a just consideration of their former Merit.

VVhat I meant by Conscience, I need not explain, since our Examiner has been pleased to divert the Age with a new Doctrine, that apparently shews what a Consciencious Clergyman he is; for when I had informed him that [Page 38] some Persons did not refuse the Oaths out of Obstinacy, Pride, and Prejudice; he replies, that I was willing to teach the World how to give un­charitable Names to the suspended Bishops.P. 13. And, what our ill Natur'd Levite should mean by this pretence, I know not, unless he would be thought to Celebrate the Feasts and Sacrifices of H [...]rcules, accor­ding to the old Custom of the Rhodian Priests, who esteem'd it an heinous crime, to speak one good word during the whole Solemnity. Do's he think a pious and good Man do's value the uncharitable Names which the wicked VVorld, or any Clergy-men of Demas's stamp do cast upon them? The Names are un­charitable, and therefore to be dispis'd by a Christian, much more by Bishops: and if any of them be destitute of Pride, Prejudice, and Passion, they have a charitable name given them by their Conforming Brethren, and particularly by the most Reverend Primate of York, who in his learned Treatise of Con­science, gives no bad Account of such Men; and it is no matter what our Clergyman, or the uncharitable world prate against them, or against that Arch-bishop; since both the Swearing and the Non-swearing Fathers, own the same Principle in this case: And may the good God in his due time reconcile them in other Points, which is the hearty Prayer of all charitable Men.

I must not forget to let the VVorld know, what serious admonition the Ex­aminer offer'd to the Bishops: He advised them, since the Apolo­gizers did not dive into the Reasons,P. 15. why the Bishops refused the Oaths, some of the Reverend Persons would have done it them­selves, by which, he says, they would have abundantly obliged the World. Here the Examiner appear'd in his true colours, and we may at first sight, guess what he would be at. How do's he know, but they were commanded by Authority to be silent? VVould it have recommended them to the favour of the best Men, or have bin introductive of Union, or advance the public se­curity for the Bishops to have publish'd the occasion of their scruples, and to have rais'd doubts in others? Should the Press be supplied with new Artillery, to Bombard our Nation, and to ruin our Peace. VVe have heard indeed, of some learned VVranglers, who would always carp at the Established Orders and Discipline, 'till they were bought of some Ecclesiastical preferments: But our late Diocesan, has bin the Son of Peace; and as he hath hitherto promoted, neither Clamour, nor Schism; so has he not thought it necessary to accept a Challenge, to which our reverend Clergyman has dar'd him.

But truly I am surpriz'd to consider how a Person of so mean a soul as our Examiner should expect any satisfaction in this or any other case from men of Honour and of Conscience who, hath affronted them after an un­pardonable sort:P. 33, 34. We have had, saith he, great expectation of the efficacy of the success of the King in Ireland might have had upon the Consciences of the Suspended Clergy, but we are mistaken for once, though we have yet some weak glimpse of hopes that the subduing of Limrick, and the rest beyond the Shannon may help to open some peoples Eyes once for all. Who knows but the Sees of the Suspended Bishops may be vacant 'till that time? &c. This was the Barba­rous Rant of our Examiner, and I am confident there is not one of the Con­forming Bishops but abhorr'd the Position. What! were all the Suspended Clergy Pentioners of Fortune? were all their Consciences subject to the Laws of the Sword, and to the Fate of War? Dr. Sherlock has acquainted the world, That a Clergy-man may have Scruples, and yet be no Disciple of Mars, or a Friend of the unrighteous Mammon. He hath overcome his doubts without digging into the Trenches either of Colerain or Limrick; and tho he is most happy in satisfying his own Scruples, and most righteous in justifying the Au­thority of the Laws; yet his Integrity was not to be disputed during his Su­spension. [Page 39] But there is no great heed to be given to our Examiner, who abuses our Clergy in general. Our Suspended Clergy were sent to Ireland to fish for Consciences in the Shannor, and the Bishop and Clergy of London with many Hundreds in other Diocesses, who are not Suspended, were condemn'd by our Author to the Pest-house, they being according to the New Montebanks Cer­tificate infected with the Rot. It's scarce worth our pains to enqui [...]e into our Examiner's distemper, whose tongue is an unruly evil full of deadly poyson.

When our Author comes to examine or rather to insult on the suff [...]rings of the Bishops in the late Reign, he takes it in an hard sense, that I should say they were confined like their Fore fathers in Dioclesian's Rage among Murtherers and Traytors, and to publish his great skill in discussing a Falacy, Imparium ut Parium, where there was really none, he would infer from those words, that I suppos'd they suffer'd in all degrees as severely as those Primitive Martyrs; and therefore he is pleas'd to inform us, that the Tower is a Royal Palace,P. 12, 13: and was always lookt upon as none of the worst Prisons in the world, at least not altogether so ill as the Dungeons under Ground, where the Primitive Christians were penn'd up, &c. I leave it to the determination of any indifferent Judge, whether the Examiner has not mis­construed my words, and at the same time become guilty of an unpardonable sort of Envy, that gently flatters the most Arbitrary proceedings of our Age. It may be the Jesuits, for th [...]s service of the Examiner to their cause, may al­low a yearly Pension to encourage their Champion to write and labour s [...]renu­ously against Bishops, their Order having an hereditary spleen against that Venerable Function. Or perhaps Father Peter who signed, or at least concur­red to that severe sentence, will recommend his Favourite, who is already a through pa [...]'d Examiner, to some high Preferment in the holy Inquisition. In the mean time, I would fain know, why the Tower is not to be lookt upon as a bad Prison, especially for Bishops? Is it a grateful circumstan [...]e to those whom our Examiner calls the Apostles of Peace,P. 29. and not the Sons of Mars, to be honoured with the Attendance of armed Keepers, to feed upon the Fume of Gun-powder, and to exchange the Musick of the Quire for that of the Cannon? to be lodg'd in a place out of which many are drag'd to Execution, and from whence few return without a manifest impair of their health? Queen Elizabeth, like Joseph in Pharoah's Royal Prison, thought this no agreeable Palace; the same has prov'd fatal to Crown'd Heads; and though some of the Regalia are preserv'd in the Archives of the Tower (where they are as insensible of their confinement as of the pro­found reverence that is paid them by the Spectators) yet is it an usual Recep­tacle of Murtherers and Traytors. In fine, as the Innocency of the Bishops was as clear as the Heavens, so would their Confinement have been as dreadful as the lowest Cell of Dioclesian's Prison had they not been supported with the Christian consideration that a good Conscience, and God's presence changes Hell into Heaven, and makes the most noisom Dungeon on Earth equal to the Paradice above.

We gladly acknowledge that a good hand of Providence stopped the Popish fury in its Meridian career; so that those seven Confessors can pretend to no other Martyrdom than what they receive from Evil and Mercenary Tongues. But if we take the Testimony of the Foreign Hugonot Ministers (whose words I shall have occasion to cite more at large in another place) to be of any Vali­dity; those Fathers which were imprisoned in the Royal Palace of the Tower, were animated with a Zeal worthy Primitive Bishops, and were prepared to suffer any thing with admirable constancy; some indeed think they suffered too little, and there are a sort of Anti-Prelatists, men true neither to the [Page 40] Crown nor to the Mitre, who if the Authority of our good Prince had not laid Shackles on their intemperate zeal, would think they should have done God service in Chamoleting our Records not only with the Tears, but with the blood of our Bishops; and in reward of their vigorous appearance against the Ty­rannical Encroachments of Italy and France, have sacrific'd them as the Romans did the Watchful Birds that Guarded their Capitol from the Gallia Senones.

The Examiner having by a subtile device mitigated the just Odium we had conceiv'd of the illegal Practices of the Papists against our Prelates in the Per­secution during the late Reign, he considers the Merit of the Bishops with as great equity as their sufferings; and will by no means consent that they should have come under any shadow of Favour, as Mr. Huddleston once did: but tru­ly if his Theme were good, his management has spoil'd it, and his Reasons like Hercules's foot, do soon discover their Master. He tells us (pray mark the Argument) that the Bishops were not worthy of the Priviledge, because he could not remember that either of them had the good fortune to preserve the Life of a King,P. 19. when sought for by Ene­mies, nor did he find any of their Names mentioned in our History of King Charles's Wonderful Escape at the fatal Battel of Worcester.

That they should have preserved the Lives of Kings when sought for by E­nemies, would have entituled them to the Province of Guardian Angels; that they did not more especially preserve the Life of King Charles the First, if they might not be imputed to the precaution of the Regicides, yet the surprize was no less afflicting to them than to the Royal Martyr, bearing in some sense an Analogy with that Agonizing love which drew a flood of Tears from St. John, and the other suffering Saints, who being the sad Witnesses of our Saviour's Passion, wept in simpathy with the blood and water that streamed from his bo­dy. It would be vanity in me to say they would have been ready to have died for him, since all Persons who are acquainted with their Principles, cannot but allow that they would have suffered any thing to have kept him alive, exclu­sive of that Damnation which over-took his Murtherers.

That they were not instrumental in preserving the Life of King Charles the Second at Worcester, proceeded from the determined Council and Pleasure of God, who raised up other Instruments to effect it; the same unsearchable wis­dom reserving our Bishops for another great work to the overthrow of Pope­ry, and to the confusion of many of those old Rebels, whose hands were scar­let-red at Worcester Battel; who having expell'd that King, a [...] being a Friend to Bishops, and Voted down Bishops as the friends of Popery, of late years declared with the Papists as being therefore their Friends, because they were Enemies to our Bishops, and opposed our Bishops, as being therefore their Ene­mies, because the Bishops were no Friends to the Papists. O dignum novâ Sphinge Ae [...]igma!

But with humble deference to our Authors judgment, can no Person be of equal merit with Mr. Huddleston without being joyn'd with him in one and the same memorable Act? I might retort that the Popish Mr. Huddleston was not as meritorious as our Bishops, because he was not clapt up into the Tower with, and in the cause of, those Protestant Confessors, and at the same rate our Clergy-man might evade the Character of being as great a Rayler as Corah and his Company, because he did not joyn with them in their Outrage against Moses and Aaron; but the world will not allow him such a Priviledg beyond the rest of the Billingsgate Fraternity.

Our Militant Clergy-man having not found the Bishops at the Battel of Wor­cester, where I doubt he would have given them no Quarter, and where they would have stood in as much need of a Rescue as King Charles the Second: He [Page 41] inform'd the Nation that he was come to a point: For, says he, until the Bi­shops have as great a stock of merit on the like score as M [...]. Huddleston had. We (by which word, he is again to be considered in his Pluralities) must, saith he, allow them to come under the Act of Parliament with the rest of England. and Mr. Huddleston to stand alone without the honour of a Clergyman to bear him Company. This is very fine! And yet, with the Examiners leave, Mr. Huddleston did not stand without the honour of being a Clergyman himself: For he was a Priest, and a Priest too (if we may believe his Cant in the Court of Kings-Bench) after the Order of Melchizedeck. Whether our unaccount­able Clergyman be of that Order, I shall not determine, but what a sort of Clergyman Huddleston was, I will consider in its due place.

In the mean time, that our Author may not judge himself, and Mr. Hud­dlestone, the only meritorious Clergymen: I desire him to examine in what Language the Bishops, who writes and thinks as clearly as any Person in the Nation, Discourses of the Seven Bishops, and another reverend Prelace; he tells us, that their merits and sufferings, in asserting our Laws and Religion, were so conspicuous, and by consequence, the fury of the Papists against them so implacable, that perhaps it would be presumption in any other Clergyman to come in Competition with them, for either of those Honours: And in ano­ther Discourse, the same Bishop carries on the Panegiric in an higher strain, which I know, cannot but disgust any Clergyman of our Examiners and Mr. Huddleston's principles, and therefore I shall not insist on a Theme so unplea­sant to them.

I rather observe, that when I made mention of Mr. Huddleston's merit, I did not thereby suppose, that he did more then his duty: For what our Examiner says of our Bishops, we may apply to him, viz. that he did not so well at one time, but he did as ill afterwards, by refusing the Oaths. And truly, the fa­vour for which we Petitioned, like that which was granted to him, would have bin an Act of Grace and not of VVorks: And to deny the Kings Power, to propose such an Act to the consideration of His Parliament, was a great weakness in some Persons, and seem'd derived from the peculiar pretence of, such State-Dogmatists, as would be thought fit Tutors to instruct their Prince

It cannot, I confess be denied, that an Oath is a National security; but yet, it must still be allowed, that it is therefore a security, because the Customs of the Nations hath so enacted, But this do's not bar the right of Interpre­tation that is lodg'd in the Legislative Body, which may appoint any other se­curity, and accept it as such: So that when I propos'd the example of Mr. Huddleston (an old Popish Priest, who, by a solemn League and Covenant taken in the Apostolic Chamber, where they usually declare in an irreconcilable Ab­horrence of all protestants, by them called Heretical Princes; and joyn in the dreadful Unkinging Anathema against them) was so far plu [...]g'd into an invio­lable Precontract, as to stand in need of a Parliament to supersede the Obli­gation of the Oaths, when I say, I propos'd this example, I did it with no other intent, then to express what power is seated in our King and Parliament, and as we were not Traitors for owning their Authority; so it is no Treason to affirm, that His Majesty in concurrence with our representatives, can at their pleasure excuse the Oaths. Should they in our case have refus'd it, upon the account, that such a performance might have bin an Ʋmbrage to the quiet and peace of the Government; they would however, as has bin often hinted, have acted according to the real sense of our Petition; for our Grand jury did not engage into any Mans Quarrel against our Establishment, the Authority of which, we own'd in express Terms; but we did, with all dutiful submission, resign the Case, wholly to be determined by our Superiors, whether the sub­ject [Page 42] of our Address, could bear any proportion agreable to His Majesties Service. And therefore, the Examiner is too fierce, when he is pleased to say, that we presumed so far as to prescribe a Copy to the Parlia­ment;P. 19. for, whoever consults the Page, to which he refers, may soon perceive the intent, by the very Letter of the words, viz. that as the two Houses have Presidents of their own, which in matters of Im­portance, they often pursue (as the Roman Senate did usually proceed more Majorum) so that it is introductive of no new Custom, for our Representatives to Copy out their own former special Acts, if they judge it convenient; and that where such Presidents are wanting, the Sovereign (with the Concurrence of the Lords and Commons) can, on many occasions, dispense where there was never dispensation before.

I confess, by some expressions in the Apology of which, I may Assign this as one,P. 21. viz. that King William's favour to the Bishops would gain him as much Renown, as when he waded thro the difficulties of War: Any Person hath just reason to conclude, that I was too far Transported in a cause, which I thought, had not bin the worst in the world; and yet, notwithstanding the Examiners Retort, I may tell him, that as I supposed, it would have bin an Act of Mercy, so all such Acts bear an high­er Character then Feats of Arms; since, according to the good old Father, to shew Mercy, is greater then to raise from the Dead. 'Tis true indeed, the passing o're the Boyn, and the other renowned Exploits of King William, were most memorable Atchievements, but yet they were the Atchievments of a Man: For the like have bin perform'd by his Illustrious Ancestors, by the Carthaginian Hannibal, by the Roman Caesars, and by Henry the great of France: But to raise from the Dead, is an Act purely Divine, and carries with it the stamp of our great deliverer Christ.

If I was too forward in framing my Hypothesis, I am sure the Examiner has out-stript me in cases of that Nature, of which he gives no laudable Instance, when wresting my words beyond reasonable construction, he tells me, as if he were Confessarius to his Majesty, that if shewing favour to the Bishops,P. 33. had bin an Act of Piety, it must consequently have bin King William's Duty so to have done.

The advantage our Author would hence derive, is, that I should agree, it was King William's duty to have extended the favor, for which we Petitioned: But I am so far from weighing the Sentiments and Actions of our great Prince (who carries the ballance of Europe in his own hands) in my narrow Scale, that I dare not affirm a thing which would render me not one of the number of humble Petitioners, but rather of wilful and positive Dictators, such as the world accounts our Examiner, by his own confession to be: However, by my saying King William's favor to the Bishops, would have bin an Act of Piety; I meant only to express my own sense, and the sentiments of the Subscribers, upon which they grounded their Petition, tho the Examiner carps at my good manners, for not diving into the scruples of the deprived Fathers, I desire him not to presume so far, as to obtrude a private Opinion, upon the Reason and Conscience of his Sacred Majesty.

I need not at present usurp so far upon the faculty of our positive Theologue, as to examine the several acceptations, by which the word Piety is distinguish'd among Authors, tho I cannot but assure our Clergyman, that if he do's con­clude all Acts of Piety to be, without respect to Circumstances, at all times the necessary Duty of a Man; I may, if he please, put him in mind of a work, that may render his Name and Character more famous then that of an Inquisitor.

'Tis not to be doubted, but that if our Examiner should in a serious Zeal, dispatch a Christian Admonition to those Celebrated Gentlemen, that Com­pose the Scotch Assembly, and remind them of His Majesties repeated Letters, and exhort them to that Spirit of moderation, of which their Presbyters have of late years so much boasted, assuring them that the Eyes of Christendom are fix'd upon them, and that they would do well (now they are entrusted with the Power) to give the English Convocation a good President to follow, and to demonstrate to the world, how studious they are of Uniting Protestants: more especially, that they should not Unchurch all Episcopal Reformed Chur [...]hes, or impose an Oath and Test on those Bishops and their Clergy, that submit to King William's Government, so apparently destructive of their former Ob­ligations: 'Tis not, I say, to be doubted, if our Clergyman would hazard the Attempt, but that he would perform an extraordinary Act of Piety, accor­ding to the present Notion of the word; and if he thinks it his duty so to do, he has a large Field to Exercise his Tallent; and when our forward Levite has practis'd, thus far he may if he please (and parhaps with equal success) extend his Piety further, even to the Conversion of the great Mogul, and of the Cham of Tartary; and carry the Trophies of a spiritual Warfare, as far as Tamerlane did that of the Sword.

Our Author suppos'd he had another great occasion to be jocose,P. 18. when he consider'd a Bishops Parole of honour to the Government. But in this Case I may observe, that tho there occurs such a passage in the Apology, yet our Address did not intermeddle in that particular: And tho the Examiner did so strangely divert himself with the Notion, yet he at the same time allowed it to be a Bond,P. 19. most sacred among Men of probity: And there is no doubt, but some of the depriv'd B [...]shops may be Men of Probity, and may also understand the Nature and Ob­ligation of Promises, as well as our Author, and may also think their parole to be a thing most sacred; and if they would have obliged themselves by a thing so sacred, they must be suppos'd to have done it in Conscience, and with sub­missions to the High Powers, to which they should have stood obliged: And as the Person who would have confirm'd, and publsh'd the Inno [...]ence and Sin­cerity of his mind, by such a Declaration, would have bound himself by a most sacred Tye; so would such an obligation have bin as solemn as an Oath, and there might as great Penalties have bin annex'd to the Violation of it, as to the breach of an Oath, nor would such a Violation have bin less then Perjury, with respect to Conscience, in foro Dei. But the Examiner demands, why would he not then take the Oaths who is suppos'd thus willingly to have offered his parose of Honour? To this I answer, that it cannot be with any fraudulent design, for then he would not have bound himself by a thing to sacred as his parole of H [...]nour, but it must in Charity be adjudged to have proceeded from a serious reason, viz. because he dat'd not put any interest into the bal [...]ance with the Peace of his Consc [...]ence, which is a thing very sacred too: What shall I add more? If I should say he do's not refuse the Oaths out of Obsti­nacy, Pride or P [...]ejud [...]ce, the Examiner would gain the retort, that I was willing to teach the World how to give uncharitable Names to the suspen [...]ed Bishops, and therefore I insist no fu [...]ther on this Argument, least I give him an occasion of being prophane.

But supposing the Apologist to have b [...]n guilty, was it be [...]oming the gravity of a Divine, to cast dust after so rude a sort, on the Fathers of the Church; as to affirm, that a Bishops parole of Honour,P. 18. is derived from the Knight-Erranty of Don-Quixote? Were not many of the deposed Bishops in the Primitive Ages, still called Honourable [Page 44] Lords? And dare our Examiner, in verbo Sacerdotis, affirm, that the solemn parole of honour of such Fathers, is the same with the Knight-Erranty of the Alsatia Squires, who swear and forswear, who reiterate Vows and Promises al­ready broken, and break and reiterate them again? This Knight Erranto­ry of our Author, is learnt from the reverend Don Quixote, who is the Moses, the Prophet, and the Evangelist of our Examiner. Our Clergyman has now discover'd his Reading, and why may he not be of kin to another Romantic Hero (of the same Trade with our Author) who using the necessary expedient of Penny Sermons, was pleasantly impos'd on by the Treachery of his Stati­oners Lad, that pack'd up his Baggage, for by this means, he gave his Parishi­oners a surprizing account of the Divinity, contain'd in the renowned History of the Gotham Magi. We see what fate usually attends those, who have neither Honour nor Veracity to loose; and may we be delivered from all such Pulpit Drolls, whose Bible is a Romance, and whose Library is at the Mancha. In truth, our Author, to carry on the Frolique, ought to have Dedicated his Learned composure to the Saint-Errant of that holy City; he had then ex­actly imitated the great Dominican Gallego, who having discust some Scholasti­cal Questions, concluded with the memorable words: And thus, saith he, I have finished the first Tome of my Logical Controversies, which I Consecrate to the Honour, and to the Glory of St. Benedict, the Gracious Patrone of the Famous Town de Yepes, where I suck'd in both my Milk and my Learning. — But to Proceed.

Our Examiner was very huffish and severe, that our Bishops (and indeed most of the Bishops of our Nation are concern'd in the same guilt) should ex­press any sorrow for the miseries of the late King, and therefore is enrag'd at their Tears for the Calamities of King James, P. 15. &c. But did not Samuel mourn for Saul, and did not the Prophet weep for the afflictions of Zedechiah, tho the one, by Gods appointment, anointed David, and the other publish'd Nebuchadnezar to be King? Our Clergyman, if he please, may consult the Sermon of the reverend Doctor, who Preach'd the last Thanksgiving day before the Commons, and he will be amply satisfied, that our Church did not rejoyce at the troubles into which King James was involv'd: We were, saith he, active in our Obedience to our Prince, as far as our Conscience would give us leave, and when he required of us more then this, we received his Com­mands with sorrow, but submitted to his displeasure with good Will, with such a Chri­stian temper, with so affectionate a concern, as shewed that we were more troubled for his misfortune than for our own. — This was the summ of our Bishops Tears, and if our Clergyman was destitute of them, his Eyes were Flint, and his Heart as hard as the nether Milstone; I am sure we had no Reason to be glad at the afflictions, or the sins of the Abdicate Prince, but our joy ought rather to be employ'd in praising God for our wonderful deliverance by the hands of the present Soveraign.

But the Examiner, to make the Reflection the more odious, cries out,P. 16. what needed the Apologist tell the world, that those Fathers endeavoured by their holy Tears, to cure the unfortunate Princes wounds? Which he interprets, as a design to cure him of the loss of his Kingdom. O delicately observ'd! Had not King James any wounds before he left his Kingdom, was he not wounded in his judgment, when he spurn'd at the Lord Primates seasonable Admonition, to be reconciled to the Protestant Faith? Was he not wounded in his Government, when he refused the Bishops serious Advice, to be reconciled to his People? Was not he wounded by his false Friends, when flattering Addressors and evil Councellors, had ruined his Interest in the Nation? Our Bishops, whilst he held both the Authority and the Name of King, endeavoured to have cured him of these wounds, and at the same time, to have satis­fied [Page 45] the just demands of our Deliverer: But, to say, they endeavoured to cure the late King of his wounds, by placing him on the Throne again, is our Cler­gyman's blessed Inference, and as it was far from my thoughts, so it is as good sense as to cure the wounds of a Man, whose Soul is departed from his Body: For after King James was Dead in Law and in Policy, he could receive as little comfort from that Medicine of the Bishops, as the Egyptian Mummies can de­rive from the best Balm of that Country. But to evidence the unreasonable­ness of this Cavil, the Reader need no other expedient, than to consult the Apology, and he may find, that tho some Lachrymists endea­voured to cure King James's wounds with their Tears,P. 6. they were yet so far from promoting the design of his Return, that they were of an unspotted Fame, under the present settlement. These words are to be construed, with relation to the time when they were written, and our Authors Cavil against them hath a like dependence: So that I have nothing to say more to our Clergy-man on this Point, than to inform him of a Conclusion of our Law, Maledicta Expositio est quae corrumpit Textum, and to advise him not to publish any Annotations on the New Testament, lest from the Tears our Saviour spent upon Jerusalem he proves a design'd Conspiracy against Caesar.

But it was no wonder our Reverend Clergy-man should be irreconcileable to Christian Tears, when even Godly sorrow did work death with him too; for he was pleas'd positively to assure us,Pag. 13. that the Bishops were little obliged to the Apologizers in taxing them with mourning in spirit, for the miseries of the Protestant Church: Alas! how strangely, saith he, does the man accuse instead of defending the Per­sons he Apologizeth for, and what can he say worse of them than that they mourn in spirit for the miseries of the Protestant Church when the Bishops are thought to believe the Protestant Religion to be in a better condition through this late Revolution, &c.

If this be not blasphemous Sophistry, the notions of Truth and Error are strangly confounded. Our Authors Argument runs thus, The Protestant Re­ligion is allowed to be in a better condition through this great Revolution: Ergo, nothing can be said worse than to mourn in spirit for the miseries of the Protestant Church! a very crooked consequence, that does directly derogate from Gods Justice, who has been chastizing his own people for their sins, and reflects as scurrilously on Queen Mary, who to deprecate Gods wrath, appoin­ted a solemn Monthly Fast to afflict our Bodies, and to mourn for the miseries of our Brethren! In the Book set forth by Authority for the Service of the day we are directed (and indeed this is a good Bishop, and every good Chri­stians daily Employ) to consider that being Members of the Mystical Body of Christ we are to mourn and rejoyce as the state and circumstances of our Brethren require; and that now especially we present our Supplications and Prayers at the Throne of Grace in behalf of all the Reformed Churches, beseeching God to look down with an eye of mercy and pi [...]y upon the sad and mournful state of such of them whom he has delivered over to the hands of Superstitious and merciless men, and that he would not suffer his Enemies still to triumph over his Heritage: More­over that we are to expostulate with Heaven in this passionate Enquiry: How long Lord shall thy anger burn? for ever? How long wilt thou forget thy People? O let the cry of the blood of thy Saints, and the sighing of the Prisoners come before thee: Hear us, O God, for thy mercy's sake, and for the honour of thy great name plead thy Cause with them that blaspheme thy Truth, and persecute thy People, &c.

I cannot sufficiently bewail the misfortune of our Age that has produc'd such wretched Preachers as our Examiner. It seems the state of the Protestant Church is such that it has no need of our mourning in spirit for her. O false [Page 46] suggestion worthy the lips of another Simon Magus, or Elymas the Sorcerer! Indeed we in England have enjoy'd a lucid Interval of Peace, of Rest, and of Liberty within the Verge of our own Land, which next, to the infinite mercy of God, and the wonderful Conduct of our Deliverer, is doubtless in a great measure owing to the tears of those righteous Persons who mourn in secret for the publick Calamities. But does our Author, with a Laodicean Disdain un­church all foreign Protestants? Or have they no miseries that deserve our Pi­ty, our Prayers or Lamentation? Are the Protestants of the Palatinate, and of the Lower Germany in no affliction? if so, what mean the dreadful Havock and Desolation of their Country? Are the French Hugonots in perfect Tran­quility singing under their own Vines and Fig-trees? Why then do the distres­sed Refugees appear in all places the objects of our Charity? Have our Bre­thren in Poland, Hungary and Transylvania been in perfect Peace? What then did the Intrigues of the Austrian Jesuits, and the direful Ravagement of the Turks and Tartars import? Have the Protestants in Ireland been exempt from an over-flowing Calamity ever since the Revolution? The Tempest that has lately reign'd in Connaught, and the fury of the Raparees in other Provinces, have taught us the affliction of a very different Experience; the Protestant Church in general has not in our memory, nor in the Age of our Fathers known a blacker Scene of War and Devastation: Her M [...]jesty therefore required us to joyn in the Prayers of the Church, and to mourn with those that mourn; and our Saviour cries out to us by his Ministers in the Gospel, Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted; but our Clergy-man does pass a loud Affront on both, and demands whether any thing can be said worse than to mourn in spirit for the miseries of the Protestant Church? 'Tis much to be regreted that the Bishops, who compiled the Fast-prayers, had not consulted and pursued our Examiner's sense, we should then perhaps have found that as Risibility is by the Logicians affirm'd to be the Property of Man, so his san­ctify'd Cajolory and Frolick of Laughing would have made up the distinguish­ing Character of our Church in her most solemn Devotions. I believe no other Protestants in the whole world, would have presum'd to usurp upon her pre­tence to that grinning Prerogative.

Hitherto our Examiner has been pleasant upon our Prelates, and yet alas, he is not content to exercise his Talent against them, but shews his Teeth a­gainst the whole Sacred Order, and is scurrilous against Bishops in general; for envying them their just Character, the Laughing Andrew pro­poses another merry Question:Pag. 16. Where, saith he, hath the Pane­gyrist learn'd this new kind of Canting flattery, Holy Primate, and the holy Tears of Bishops? Alas, fond man, does he ask me where I learnt to call Primates and Bishops holy? why, I learnt it as from the very Text of the most AncientVid. Concil. 1. Constant. cap. 1. Con­cil. Chalced. cap. 1. 5, &c. Councils, where the Fa­thers of the Church are so distinguisht; so from the cu­stomary Language of our Fore-fathers, who as Socrates's Scholasticus has recorded, did not usually speak of Bishops without stiling themSocrat. Histor. Eccles. l. 6. in Pro­aem. most dear to God, and most holy. I learnt it in particular from the good Christians of Mi­lan who in common Discourse treated their Diocesan with the name of theAmbros. de Pae­nit. Edit. Froben. pag. 236. Holy Bishop, and the Good Priest. I learnt it together with the reason thereof from a Reve­rendOutram. de Sa­erif. pag. 2. Doctor of our own Church, who tells us that with respect to God (whose Majesty is inviolable) not only Times, Places, Rites and Ceremonies, but Persons also who are Dedicated to his Worship and Se [...]ice ought to [Page 47] be accounted Sacred and Holy by us. Finally I learnt it from the concurrent Vote of all Ages, and of all Churches; yea, even from Calvin, Zanchy, Martyr, Gualterus, and the Hugonots themselves; for in the Intercourse they held with our English Prelates they usually saluted them with the Title of most Holy and Reverend Fa­thers. And therefore we may observe the Illuminated Judgment of our Clergy-man, who not only Libels our Living Bishops, and spits his Fury on our Church, but affronts most Venerable Antiquity, and condemns the Renowned Doctors of the Reformation. But 'tis usual with prophane Wits to hazard all rather than to lose their Jest.

With the same reason our Examiner proposes his Question to me, from whence I learnt my new kind of Canting [...]lattery of Holy Bishops, I may also demand of him from whence he learnt the new Canting pretence of robbing them of their just Character? but I need not in this Case expect his Answer since Chrysostom, as I find him quoted by Dr. Downham, has plainly declar'd, that Heretics have learnt of the Devil not to give due Titles of Honour to Bishops. But why do I discourse to our Clergy-man of Chrysostom, who in his whole Discourse (the prime respect being paid to Don Quixot) quotes no other Ancient Father than Amadis de Gaul, and the Seven Champions. And indeed he is not the first that has reviv'd the Credit of such Au­thors; for a late Chief Justice (another back-friend to our Bishops) when in the Bloo­dy Assize, after Monmouth's defeat, he scowr'd through the West, he was observ'd as he sat on the Bench at Bristol, to mention neither Year-books, nor Statutes, nor Re­ports, but to give us a Learned Reading of Law from a Passage of Sancho Panchae, and how nearly ally'd our Clergy-man is to that Lord Chief Justice, we may then presume to know when the Rabble of Whapping hath discover'd the Cheat that lyes hid under his Canonical Crape.

I had almost forgot our Clergy-man's remarkable Cavil thatPag. 18. Gallantry is a word too material for Bishops, who are the Sons of Peace: And thatPag. 29. Glorious Exploits belong not to them, but to the Sons of Mars. This stuff is part of our Authors Hotch­potch, and it is as like the rest of the Pudding as one drop of Fat to another, I need not be very nice in my scrutiny to find where our Examiner learnt this Do­ctrine; for the good old Florentine (Machiavel I mean) supply'd him with the whole Notion. He assures us, that Heroick thoughts are not agreeable to the design of Christianity; that Gallantry and greatness of spirit are subverted by it, and that Religion does enervate the minds of its Votaries. But what does the great Bishop Osorius answer in this Case? He tells us, that this Objection of Machiavel is rude and base, and demands of him,Osor. de Nobi­lit, Christian. Lib. 3. What he could see mean or despicable in Christians? if greatness of soul be required, none, saith he, are more Illustrious than good men, who contemn the gawdy Vanities of the World, and are transported by an Heavenly Rapture to such a degree of perfection as o study nothing but what is Divine and Noble, and to breath after Glory and Immortality. That even tender Virgins in their Conflicts, with the Rage of Persecutors, have manifested a daring Patience, an unconquerable Fortitude and a courage that has out-brav'd the cruelty of their Tormentors, and conquered Death in its most ghastly Attire. Hitherto has Osorius argued against the loud Impertinencies of Machiavel, by which it is apparent that though honesty be a word too spiritual for the Examiner, yet Gallantry is not too material for Christian Bishops. If our Author desires more satisfaction, let him consult St. Cyprians Epi­stles, where he may find him saluting Rogatianus, Cypr. Epist. 7. Id. Epist. 16. Edit. Pamel. and his Fellow Sufferers, as valiant Brethren, and representing the two Presby­ters Moyses and Maximus as no less Men than Colonels, Captains and Ensigns, and Conquerors under Christ's Banner. If our Cler­gy-man take a farther view and cast his eye on Eusebius's History, and the Marty­rologies of the Church, or give himself the leisure to peruse the Holy Scriptures, [Page 48] especially the Epistle to the Hebrews he will find,Cap. 11. that Saints and Con­fessors are more famous for their Exploits on those Sacred Records than the Renowned Cyrus, Alexander the Great, or Solyman the Magnificent in other Histories. May therefore a Bishop be permitted with the same Right to en­joy the name of an Hero as that of a Christian, nor let that Gallantry be thought material, which neither flames can scorch, nor Lions devour.

I must not suffer another pleasant flight of our Examiner to pass without some serious Reflection; he acquaints us, that my saying the Austerities of an Holy Primate are Seraphical,Pag. 28. was a Monkish Expression; Any one, says he, would be inclinable to think the Person, the Author speaks of, was a Popish Bishop rather than a Protestant one. But will he accuse me of Monkery, for naming the Austerities of the Lord Primate Seraphi­cal,Pag. 30. when he allows that my calling the spirit of Calvin Angelical, was a kind expression? Is not a Seraphim one of the Orders of An­gels? And are not our English Metropolitans of as great Authority with us as Cal­vin in other Countries? Shall he be an Archangel in their Churches, and shall not an Archbishop be at least a Seraphim in ours? Were Calvin himself alive he would deride our Clergy-man's Vanity, and peremptorily require him to affix an Index Expurgatorius to his Book, and note his Passage as one of the Grand Errata to be expunged.

But our Author tells us, He puts no value upon that, the Roman Church calls by the name of Austerities,Pag. 29. which they do by way of Pe­nance, and to gain Merit. Although this be very ridiculously offer'd; yet, with respect to our Clergy-man, who would not be thought to deliver any in­congruous or indigested stuff, I shall consider the force of the Argument, that re­solves it self into this Categorical Form.

To affirm that an Holy Primate is Seraphical in the Austerities of his life, is to put a value upon Austerities which the Romanists do by way of Penance, and to gain Merit.

But the Apologizer affirms that an Holy Primate is Seraphical in the Austerities of his life.

Therefore the Apologizer does put such a value upon the Austerities, &c.

I think I have just reason to except against our Author, as supposing first, that none but the Romanists put a value upon the strictest Austerities: Secondly, that the Romanists put no other value upon Austerities then mentioned by our Author: Thirdly, that to be Seraphically austere is to affect the Pageantry of a meer Romish Penance and Merit; all which is notoriously false as will soon appear.

First, He supposes that no [...]e but the Romanists put a value on the strictest Auste­rities. In truth, our Author does not aright consider what definition the Masters of Morality have given us of Austerity out of Andronicus Rhodius, viz. That it is an habit of the soul that cannot bear any leudness either in speech or pleasure. I know not how any Person can be too diligent in avoiding that leudness, or too forward in curbing the exorbitancies of his Affections, the excess of his Appetite, and the [...]xtravagance of his Tongue. The Heathens themselves, who knew as little of Po­pery as our Examiner seems to practise of true Christianity, have afforded us such Examples among their Philosophers, and others their great men, who put a value upon the true and genuine Austerities, as may serve to shame many Clergy men of our Examiner's stamp; I am sure they destroy the force of his argument, and that is sufficient.

Secondly, Our Author supposes that the Romanists put no other value upon Au­sterities than what he has mentioned. But I fear in this case, the Examiner, notwith­standing his great Reading, has not observ'd what Cardinal Hugo hath left on Record concerning St.Vid. Postil. in Epist. ad Philip. Paul, he tells us, That the A­postle was a true Seraphim, because he was fervent in Charity; that [Page 49] he had the six Wings of a Seraphim, which he makes Emblematical of the great Chri­stian Vertues and Graces: If our Clergyman please to consult that Author's harangue on this subject, he will find a Romish Cardinal vindicating the Seraphical Austeriti [...]s of St. Paul after a Protestant manner: For, he says, they were compos'd as of a fer­vent Charity, as has bin already noted, so of Continency and Contempt of the World, of Patience and a well-ordered Faith, and of a perfect humility which divested the Apostle of any pretence to Merit, and threw him as an unworthy Servant at the Feet of a Crucified Jesus, and is it Popery in this sort to be like St. Paul?

I fear our Clergyman in his transports against those Austerities, which he calls Popish, do's encourage the worst of Papists (those Grostic Libertines the Jesuites) in their Anti-christian Practices: For these new Evangelists instead of following the example of the great Apostle of the Gentiles in their Conversions, covered the Face of our Religion with an abominable Paint: An example of which we may learn from their proceedings in China, wherein a certain Catechism Publish'd by them, they discoursed nothing of a Crucified Christ, nothing of mortification, nothing of Chri­stian Austerities; so that if those deluded People should ever have the Gospel dis­covered to them, they would think themselves impos'd on, and tell the World that their Masters the Jesuites gave them no such account of Holy Tears or Mourning in Spirit, nor of a Fasting Religion, nor of a Penitent Faith, so uneasie to Nature and so repu [...]ant to Flesh and Blood; nor of a Saviour Crucified spit upon and de­rided by Men: But rather as he had bin represented to them by the Jesuites, like one of their own plump Courtiers, pleasant, smooth and gay, shining rather with a youthful Vermilion then with an Angelic, or rather the Dinvine unmixt purity.

The account we have from Johannes Palafox de Mendoza, a Bishop in America, and Dean of the Council of the Indies, He wrote an Epistle to Innocent X. of this hard usage. who for exposing this Mystery of Iniquity, was thrown out of his Episcopal See by the Jesuites means: For those good Fathers prepared a Letany [from Bishop Palafox, good Lord deliver us] and cast him forth of the City, having first affix'd two Bulls-Horns upon him in the form of a Cross: This sad Fortune befel the Austere Bishop, and 'twas great pity he had not drop'd into our Clergymans Lap, who hath frankly declared himself so very kind to Persons of that high Character in the Church, that if he found a Bishop in the act of Adult'ry, he would throw his Mantle over him.P. 5. Our Author, I believe, would in this Case, have bin the more willing to have covered him (tho not with the wings of a Seraphim, yet) with his Mantle, and to have stopp'd his Mouth with it too; least he should have pratt'led any more on the unlucky subject of Austerities, upon which the Examiner puts no great value.

And this brings me to the other supposition, that Angelical Austerities (and these we know are contradistinct to all Diabolical impulses) necessarily incline to Romish Merit and Penance, and altho, what I have already said, may sufficiently rescue Austerities from the Popery of Merit, yet I would propose this Question, viz. Whether that habit of the Soul, which cannot bear any leudness, either in Speech or Pleasure, approaching very near the Purity of the Seraphims, in whose sight all such leudness is by Nature abominable, be of the same Mould with the Monkish Doctrines that derogate from the satisfactory Attonement and Merits of our Saviour? Cer­tainly the Seraphims abhor the Doctrine, and our Author was not fervent in Charity, when he offer'd such a perverse insinuation.

As to the matter of Pennance, I suppose Seraphical Austerities to be vastly diffe­rent from it; because Penance (or Penitence) consisting in an holy Revenge upon our Bodies, and which indeed, abstracted from the superstitious abuses, with which the Roman Church has corrupted it, was the practice of true Penitents in the purest Ages, proceeds from a just and sensible sorrow of sins committed, or duties neglected, of which affliction a Seraphim is not capable, nor is it the constant imploy of a good [Page 50] Christian, as Austerity is the due exercise of which is ever attended with the Te­stimony of a good Conscience, and the other blessed Praeludiums of that unspeakable complacency, which the Angelic Spirits Eternally enjoy, under the immediate Emanations of the Divine Love.

And now, I desire our Examiner to inform me, why are not Protestant Bishops to imitate Seraphims or other good Angels, yea, even God himself in the Purity of their Lives?Philo de Gygant. Philo the Jew (who was before the days of Popery) assures us, that the true Priests and Prophets of God, are of a greater dignity, then to be accounted the Citizens of this world, and that as they are more sublime then to be entangled with sensible pleasure; so do they partake of an Heavenly Character, and lodge their affections among the pure and incorruptible Spirits: Nor was St. Jerome insensible, either of the practice, or of the pleasure of it when he called God to Witness most solemnly after he had fasted and prayed, and used other mortifications for several whole weeks together, that in the end, he seemed to himself to converse familiarly with Angels. But what need further Testimony derived from former times? For if, as we have bin taught by the reverend Dr. Sherlock, in his practical Discourse of Death, the only way to cure the fear of it, is to mortifie all Love and Affection to this World, and to accustom our selves to the work and to the pleasure of Heaven: If by the same Authority we are instructed, that Saints and Angels are the Heavenly Quire, with whom the Souls of good Men are to mingle here, and to con [...]rse hereafter: I would be resolv'd, whether the Church Militant, especially, those whom the Holy Ghost is pleased to call the Angels of the Churches, and who, according to the Opinion of some of the Ancients, have two Guardian Angels attending them, ought not to joyn with those Glorified Spirits, even in this World, in Dedicating their Actions to God's Service, as well as in praising his Name? If our Examiner hath discovered a different Inclination among the Seraphims, I would advise him at the next Edition of the Alchoran, to favor the Age by way of Supplement or Post­script, with a brief relation of his Voyage into the Etherial Countries, and let us know what escaped the observation, or at least the Pen of the old Impostor Mahomet.

I have sufficiently exposed the Examiners designs against the true Discipline of the Spirit, I now proceed to the consideration of some of his other remarkable hints.

And truly, it is no wonder that our Clergyman, who has Preach'd a very surpri­zing Doctrine against all Bishops in general, should sliely mannage for the Reputa­tion of the worst sort of Dissenters: This our positive Author has done, and at the same time endeavoured to palliate a Crime into the guilt of which some of them were too deeply engaged. But he cannot, it seems, be kind to his beloved Friends without his usual method of falsifying against me, and therefore he ac­quaints the World,P. 30. that I reflected on all the Dissenters in general. If I am to understand the words according to Tertullian's (that great Civilian) notion of a general Term, I must have directed my Discourse against Dissenters of all kinds, of all Orders, of all Conditions and Ages. This perhaps in some sense might have humored our Examiner, and also gratified those Dissenters, who deserv'd the lash of a severer Pen than mine, for Companions are sometimes pleasing, even to a Malefactor on the Gibbet. But if our Examiner would remove his blind-side from the Apology, he might, if he please, take notice of a necessary and just distinction between our Moderate Dissenters and other Pharisaical Men,P. 10. whose insults on the success of our Address made me examine their own that were accepted by King James: I was so far from the conceit of pas­sing a general censure on Dissenters, that I defie an exact Critic, to find any thing of that tendency in the whole Book. However, the respect I bear to the best Men of that perswasion, must not reconcile me to the grose Immortalities, and to the un­justifiable Conduct of others of their Brethren: For would our Examiner perswade us to comply with the Follies, the Illegal or rather Unchristian Practices of those, [Page 51] who expect Charity from others, whilst they themselves entertain but little in their own Breast? Or must we be traduced for laying down plain matters of Fact, and be ac­counted their Enemies for speaking the Truth, and for delivering the former sense of their present Majesties, of our Brethren of the Foraign Reformed Churches, and of our best Protestants at home? Whoever do's read the Letters, Declarations and Discourses, which were published against the late Stratagems of the Jesuites and their Friends, will soon find as the absur'd motions of some Dissenters in King James's time; so also that I was not the first who touch'd their folly to the quick.

If we cast our Eye on a serious Letter which the French Refugees (Hugonot Mi­nisters in Germany) dispatch'd to their Brethren in London that complyed with the mischievous practices of some of our Dissenters, in approving the Declaration of Indulgence as the Voice of Heaven, Peace on Earth, good Will towards Men; we may judge, whether I deserve as ill treatment from other Persons, as from the Exami­ner. We may also judge, whether our Author has discovered a Chri­stian Temper, when he says,P. 9. it was no wonder that poor People should be somewhat tempted with Liberty and Exemption from the severi­ties of the Penal Laws (he should have added and to have Addrest for their repeal) and even to thank the hand that gave them that Liberty, tho it was not with all the necessary conditions of Law: Which in plain English is, tho it Clothed the Prince with the Power of Dispensing, in Defiance of Parliaments, with Tests and Sta­tutes solemnly Established, and also lead, as in a direct road, to the certain and ine­vitable ruin of the Protestant Interest. I would intreat impartial Judges, to consider the Import of the following words, which, among many others, of a like significancy, are to be found in the aforesaid Letter.

If we may be, say they, permitted to tell you freely, Ibid. what our Opinion is concerning the Conduct of the Bishops, and of the Dissenters in this Conjun­cture, we shall make no difficulty to pronounce in favour of the former: We look upon it, that they have exceedingly well answered the duty of their charge, whilst despising their own private Interest, they have so worthily supported that of the Protestant Religion, whereas the others for want of considering these things as they ought to have done, have given up the Interest of their Religion to their own particular advantanges. — How have those Venerable Prelates now highly justified themselves from the reproach that was cast upon them, of being Popishly affected; and not only of Prosecuting Dissenters, but of a secret hatred to the Reformation? How well have they made it appear, that these were only Ca­lumnies invented by their Enemies, to render them odious to the Protestants, and that their Hearts were truly fixed to the Reformed Religion, and animated with a Zeal, worthy Pri­mitive Bishops? Could you see these faithful Servants of God disobey the Order of their Soveraign, expose themselves thereby to his disgrace, suffer Imprisonment, and prepare themselves to suffer any thing without admiring their Constancy, and being touched with their Examples? But above all, could you resolve by your Conduct to condemn that of those generous Confessors? Is this the acknowledgment which you ought to have made to them for their Charity with which they received, and comforted you in their Exile, &c. After this sort do these good Ministers proceed, from which we may Collect, that as our English Bishops have bin thought worthy some honour among Foreign Prote­stants; so those Dissenters who thanked the Hand that gave them their Liberty against Law, were esteemed betrayers of their Religion.

A Fancy the Examiner may be apt to tell us, that this Encomium which the Hugo­not-Ministers published in favour of the Bishops, is somewhat too Poetical, and he will be ready to direct those Forreigners, for better instruction, to a passage of his learned Book, where he hath bin pleased to signifie,P. 12. that my manner of aggravating the terror of the Tower, and setting forth the Impri [...]onment of the Bishops, is agreeable to a story recorded of Alexander, who coming to the River Indus, would needs leave behind him some Vestiges and Memoirs of his Expedition: Whereupon, be caused a great many Coats of Armor for Men and Horses, and Mangers, and Bridles [Page 52] and other necessaries of a Camp, all of them thrice as big as the ordinary sizes to be made, and all this forsooth, that succeeding Ages might believe the Men and Horses of his Army were of a Gygantic bigness: But that Alexander by this piece of Vanity, did rather detract from his fame then and to it, an [...] that instead of persuading after Ages of the Gygan­tic bigness of his Men and Horses, he thereby gave occasion to them to doubt of their due proportion. This story with all its furniture, our Clergyman applies to an innocent representation of our Bishops Sufferings, for delivering their just sense of the Popish Declaration in the last Reign; and no doubt but he may offer the same Paraphrasti­cal Descant on what the Hugonot Divines have published in praise of those Exempla­ry Confessors, and he will be apt to tell them, that our Bishops did but their Duties, and that they aggravate beyond measure, the bravery of their Conduct, and the hardships of their Imprisonment; so that in after times, People will have occasion to doubt of the proportion.

Indeed our Clergyman has a prompt Genius at Application, and therefore may he not be displeased, if I lead him to a thorough compresension of the merit of some Addressers, by giving him a short story that occurr'd in King Henry the Eights time.

When the Pope sent Cardinal Campegio with a full Authority, to inquire into the Cause of the Divorce, which that Prince had endeavoured to sue out at Rome, the Legate at his entrance into London might be more magnificent then that of St. Peters into Rome was provided with a Lordly Equipage: But as he passed through Cheap­side some of the Mules, to the great trouble of their Master, cast of their Sumpters, and the Cardinals Treasure which was thought to have equalled the Gawdery of the pretence was discovered, to consist of old Shooes, torn Raggs, tattered Britches, and other such like Stuff, which raised no small laughter in the People.

How agreeable was this Pompous Pageantry to the pretences of some Protestants, who in the late Reign, Addrest with thanks, and delivered very Elaborate Panegy­rics in favour of a Declaration, that tended to the ruin of our Church? They co­vered their Evil Intent or Folly (call it by what soft name you please) with the Man­tle of Charity, and with the glorious Fiocco of Liberty, and of Conscience. But as the Babilonish Beast, thus bravely Array'd, took its Journey through the Nation; it's upper Garment was pull'd off by some of our Bishops, and then the inward De­formity of the Monster appear'd: For the Furniture that was lodged in this Trojan-Horse, were the torn Shooes and Boots of the old Cause intermix'd with a parcel of old Slippers that had drop'd from the Pope's Foot. There were long black ragged Cloaks, joyn'd in Affinity with Popish tatter'd Vestments: there were Agnus's Dei, Crucifixes, consecrated Daggers, and other Italian Trumpery pack'd up with some North Country Ware; and truly the Nation could not but be surprized, to see so much Cheat set of with such a Religious Veil; and it was no wonder, that Foreign Protestants following the example of our Prelates, should express their Zeal against such false Brethren, which speak half in the Language of Ashdod, and half in the Dia­lect of Canaan.

But the Exiled Hugonots, were not the alone Prophets that lift up their Voice, as a Trumpet in abhorrence of the proceeding: But their present Majesties, before their accession to the Crown, signified their displeasure in the same Case. Give me leave to repeat what a reverend Author (who wrote the Representation of Threat­ning dangers, &c.) has laid down observable on this account. His Royal Highness,P. 32. said he, the Prince of Orange being desired to approve the Suspension of the Test-Acts, was pleased to answer, that while he was, as well as profest himself, a Protestant, he would never act so unworthily as to betray the Protestant Religion, which he necessarily must, if he should do as he was desired: Her Royal Highness had the same apprehension of the tendency of the Toleration and Indulgence, and was therefore pleased to say to some Scotch Ministers, who waited upon Her, that She greatly commended their having no accession to the betraying of the Protestant Religion, by their returning home to take the benefit of the Toleration.

We have heard their present Majesties Sentiments, and the Author from whom I coppied it, make an Emphatical Reflection on it with respect to the Addressors of that time. What an indeleble Reproach, saith he, will it be to a Company of men, that pretend to be set for the defence of the Gospel, who stile themselves Ministers of Jesus Christ to be found betraying Religion through justifying the Suspension of so many Laws, whereby it was established and supported, and whereby the Kingdoms were fenced about and guarded against Popery, whilst these two noble Princes (to the neglect of their Interests, &c.) signify'd their open dislike of that Act of the King, &c. the same Author is more plain with them, when he affirms, that though he thinks a Toleration may be due to the Dissenters Principles,Pag. 38. yet he did not know whether the particular men of those Principles, who had by their Addresses betray'd the Kingdom, might not be judg'd to have forfeited all share in it for their Crime committed against the Constitution, and the whole Politick Society. Nor is there, saith he, any thing more just and equal than that they who surrender and give away the Rights both of Legislators and Subjects should lose all grace and favour from the former, and all portion from the latter.

I suppose any one who is not altogether govern'd by a Malevolent Spi­rit will soon allow that the tender Reflection I made upon this Affair came short of the many deplorable Instances which others have given us of that. He that does peruse the several ingenious Discourses that bare the Title of the 14 Papers may soon discover the whole Tract of the Proceeding; and if ever any Age produc'd such Mercenary Creatures to impotent and arbitrary Licentiousness I shall subscribe to our Clergy-man's Sense, and will also confess that the times might afford a softer Theme than what may be reasonably expected from the mutual Caresses of a Religi­ous Tyranny, and of a sanctify'd Slavery.

Our Examiner says, Those men were to be pitied as well as condemn'd in going any length to satisfie a Popish Prince for their deliverance from the Clutches of a Party that had made them the Butt of their Anger for many years. I do acknowledg they were to be pittied for betraying their Religion,Pag. 29. their Reason and their Country; and so were Origen and Francis Spira to be pitti­ed, tho the one burnt Incense to an Idol, and the other Apostatiz'd from the true Church. But does the Examiner think that tho we can be charitable to their Per­sons, we must indulge their Errors, and be favourably inclin'd to a trick of Revenge. I may tell him that supposing they were Persecuted at the utmost rigor, and with a Severity equal to that of Dioclesian's times, they have lost the glory of their Suf­ferings, by endeavouring an enlargement after so mean, so base, and so unjustif [...] ­able a manner.

It has been observ'd by others that even in point of Secular Interest they were to be blam'd; and therefore I thought that the Fate which an old Mythologist writes, befel the Camel, might express what favour the betrayers of our Church could ex­pect from a Popish Prince. And I may assure them, that a Camel can sooner go through the eye of a Needle, than those Persons evade the Moral Application of that Fable: The Examiner therefore seeing himself and his Party so hard-prest, is horn-mad, and endeavours to rub off the scandal upon others; for ac­cording to his usual Charity he retorts the Reflection upon my self,Pag. 25. whom yet he pretends he does not know, and with the same handful of Dirt bespatters the Innocency of another Person: But as I cannot but smile at his poor shifts, which prove him a true Canon of the Bil [...]ingsgate Quire, so I may assure him, that his Ribaldry passes for no argument among candid and ingenious men: Not but that I am sensible some of his Brethren, who Libel Persons that are much better than the Examiner or my self, do with rapt' [...]ous pleasure yawn upon their gaping Prophet, and having snuft up his breath, and lickt the froth from his polluted mouth, they seem, like the old Idolatrous King of Ballagat in India, to wor­ship and to adore the Tooth of their Monky.

But the Examiner's folly, or rather Prevarication is no less observable than his Rage, for when I had inform'd him, that Jupiter cropped the Camel's Ears for pre­suming so far on his Interest with the Gods above other Beasts; and that the Ad­dressing Protestants could reasonably expect no better quarter from a Jesuited Court, on whose Golden Promises they built very fantastical hopes as of surviving the Ruin of our Church, so of obtaining strange advantages to the Reformation: Our merry Clergy-man (not without an extraordinary fit of Laughter, which in Fury as Pliny observes is a mortal sign) that I reflected on the Crop­ear'd Preachers.Pag. 26. Truly I did expect since our Examiner took upon him to render my meaning, that he would at least have been so fair an Interpreter as not to have offer'd violence to the natural sense; and indeed I see no necessity he had of consulting the Ancient Rabbins of the Puritan Kirk, or to have told us that those weak and superstitious men did keep their Hair short cut to avoid scandal. He cannot but know in what sense the cropping of the Ears is used by the Vulgar, without the help of the Mythological or the Hieroglyphick Ta­bles; and I suppose our Clergy-man may have read what the Professors of Divini­ty at Mecha have observ'd in their Annotations on the Turkish Gospel; how that, among other things, they tell us that the ancient Arabians did usually cut off the Ears of some Beast, and then send it into the Desart for the Expiation of their Crimes (this Ceremony it seems past current with them for a sufficient Equivalent instead of holy Tears, mourning in Spirit, or the Popery of Austerities) but truly the Crimes of our Country-men could not admit of such an easie Penance; for if His Majesty, whom God raised up to destroy the Popish Hydra, had not timely in­terceded to the rescue of our Religion and Liberties from the Clutches of a party that made them the Butt of their anger for many years, our treacherous friends of the Reformation (who depended so much on the Italian favour) would have been their own personal Scape-goats; they would without a figure have lost their Ears, if not their Heads, with their Religion and Liberties; and if the Torment of life had been continued to them, they would have been driven with reproach enough from their promis'd Canaan into the howling Wilderness; but I shall insist no fur­ther on this unpleasant Subject since as they were much to blame, so it is not to be doubted but future Histories will lash the Extravagance of those time-servers, who barter'd their Birth-right in exchange for a Mess of Pottage prepar'd in the Jesuits Kitchin. I have hitherto followed our Author in his Vindication of the Addressing Dissenters; it may not be unseasonable to consider in what sort he compounds on their behalf with his Reader on other scores, and in the first place, I cannot but observe our Examiner's surprize to hear a Man who re­flects upon our Dissenters in general (he is pleased to use a certain Scurrility in the Term) to speak favourably of Calvin. Pag. 30.

I have many things in this case to reply, and among others that I believe were Calvin in our Country as he could not be of the Party of all our Dissenters in ge­neral; so neither would he be a Dissenter from our Church: and that this is more than a conjecture may be learnt from foreign Protestants, who have been train'd up in his School; for tho they submit to their own Models at home, yet they judge very honourably of our Discipline. This is evident from a Relation the Reverend Burnet gave us of a proceeding at Geneva, where the Government en­tertain'd his English Congregation with the highest respect,Letters. and gran­ted them the Liberty of their Worship according to their own Liturgy in so oblige­ing a manner, that as there was not one Person that made any exception to it; so they freely offered the grant of one of their Churches, if the number of English should encrease; and that on the last Sunday when he distributed the Sacrament according to the way of the Church of England, he found a general joy in the Town for the opportunity given them of expressing the respect they had for our Church: and as in their publick Prayers they always pray'd for the Churches of Great Bri­tain [Page 55] as well as for the King, so in private Discourse they shewed all possible esteem for our Constitution [...], and they spoke of the unhappy Divisions among us, and of the Separation that was made upon the account of our Government and Ceremo­nies with great reg [...]et and dislike.

Nor was th [...]s a Court flourish, but we have great reason to think those foreign Protestants perform'd it with the same steady j [...]dgment by which they we [...]e for­merly govern'd; for in the year 1654. the time they repri [...]ted the Syntagma of Con­fessions of Faith of all the Reformed Churches,Durels vi [...]w of the Govern­m [...]nt, Page 173. when it was sug­gested by some Zealots, that the Articles of the English Church should be left out, and the Confession of the Westminster Assembly incerted in [...]ea of them; the Church of Geneva were so far from entertaining the motion, that they judg'd it scandalous to encou­rage the Triumph of the prevailing Schism, and to aff [...]ont o [...]r Re­formation in such a tender concern; so that our Articles like M [...]ses's Rod that de­voured the Serpents of the Magicians, have hitherto swallowed up all the new fan­gled Models of our other zealous Confessors.

But why must a Reflection on our Dissenters be a Reflection on Calvin? Was Calvin and the other foreign Reformers of the same sentiments in all points with our Separatists? Nothing less; for altho Bishop Andrews who with grief observ'd their restless temper in his days, writes, as I have seen observ'd from his Tortura Torti, Anno 1609. Pag. 110. that both Papists and Puritans conspire the hurt of Kings, as Herod and Pilate agreed to murther Christ, yet a Learned Doctor of the same age, and an especial Favourite of the Bishop openly declaresVid. Morton's full Satisfaction of a double Romish Ini­quity, &c. An. 1606. Pag. 109. that in all the lines which ever Calvin pen­ned, you cannot find one syllable that can prejudice his Loy­alty. Dare our Separatists pretend they took Calvin's advice, when by a superstitious zeal they razed out the Scripture Texts, which Queen Elizabeth and her SuccessorCan. 82. King James, by the Advice of his Convocation caused to be affixt on the walls of the Churches for a godly and Religious intent; or rather did they not Copy the proceeding from Bonner, who, for the advancement of Popery, did the like in Queen Mary's Reign? would the practices of some of our Dissenters who think it a piece of Religious Providence to save their Purses so far as to with-hold the maintenance confirm'd to our Ministers by general custom and particular Statutes have been pleasing to Calvin? or rather do not these Persons (tho unawares as I hope) fully execute the desire of Cardinal Allen, Vid. Abbot. Anti­log. & Morton's Dis­covery, &c. Page 24. who to embroil the state of our Reformation, advis'd the Roman Catholics to refuse the pay­ment of the Tenths, and of the other dues to the Parish-Priests? Are they true Scholars of Calvin, who so openly protest against a constant use of a Liturgy, and call it a stinting of the Spirit, when their Master recommended a Set-form of Prayer of the Protector in King Edward's days to manifest the agreement of the Church,Calvin. Epist. and to stop the affectation of Novalists? Have they not rather conform'd to the Doctrine and Practices of the Jesuits, who, as a Reverend Author notes,Dr. Stillingfleet, in Preface to the Ʋn­reasonableness of Se­paration. are profest despisers of Cathe­dral Service, and are excus'd from attendance on it by the Constitutions of their order, being great admirers of Spiri­tual Prayer, and an Enthusiastic way of Preaching, as ap­pears by the History of their first Institution by Orlandinus and Masseius? Can they pretend to Calvin's Spirit, who taking the advantage of a Toleration granted them by King Charles the Second, enforc'd their Disciples to a greater distance than ever from our Communion, and perswaded them that the frequenting Churches and Meetings too is to swear by God, and by Malchom? Can [Page 56] these I say pretend to Calvin's Spirit, or rather have they not tract the very foot­steps of the furious Missionaries, who after the publication of the Bull of Pope Pius the Fifth against Queen Elizabeth drew off the Romanists from the Prayers and Service of our Church,Abbots Anti­log. c. 5. which they before frequented, and gave thereby a foundation to the Recusan­cy? Do the Separatists think that their Out-cry against Bishops as Slaves of Anti­christ would have been grateful to Calvin? or rather have they not turned their Tongues to a Dialect in use with Father Parsons, who frequently decl [...]red that he would undertake to make that great Antichrist the Devil speak in any Bishop or Archbishop of England? Sheldon's Ro­mish Miracles, Pag. 25. I am sure Calvin corresponded with our Prelates after a very different form; for in an Epistle to Cranmer, he tells him, That not only England, but also the whole World (a very large Province) was in some sort subject to his Prelatical care,Epist. pag. 134. and that therefore he ought to consi­der the greatness of the Charge committed to him by God. Finally can our Dissen­ters submit to the determination made by Calvin's great Friend and Rigid Successor Beza, who though he did not approve of all our Ceremonies, because not corre­sponding with the Geneva Scheme; yet in a stated point declar'd that they could not be interpreted of such dangerous consequence,See Dr. Stil­lingst. Sepera­tion, pag. 22. as either to terrifie the Ministers from their Functions, or the peo­ple from their Submissions to the Ordinances of the Establisht Church; but that a Schism ought to be studiously avoided, since there was an Agreement in Doctrine, and in the other Essentials of Religion. We know at what forge the pretence of a purer Worship was (if not first coyned yet) temper'd with a modish allay. Father Heath and other Jesuits were employ'd to refine Protestants in the days of Queen Elizabeth; Bishop Bram­hall's Letter to Ʋsher. int. E­pist. Ʋsh. 293. and a private Seminary of Theatrical [...]nthusiasts at Paris (besides the fruitful products of Doway and St. Om [...]rs) supply'd our Armies in the Civil Wars with Gifted men, who blew up the flame of our disorders both in Church and State. Certainly Calvin, Beza and their Brethren studied more perfectly the Spirit of the Gospel than to have encou­raged such a peculiar leudness which has been supported by the dark Artifices of Rome, and propagated (under the sham-pretences of extraordinary zeal and holi­ness) by the grand enemy of Christian Peace the better to introduce the Atheism and Infidelity of the present Age.

The French Divines (and they have been esteem'd the most exact Calvinists) have been far from giving encouragement to this perverse Schisma­tical spirit,La. Fite's Friendly Dis­course, pag. 95, [...]6, 97. as one of them has abundantly prov'd from their best Authors. He tells us that the great de l' Angl [...] formerly one of the Ministers of Roan did upon the Restoration of King Charles the Second, heartily rejoyce when he was told that the English Liturgy and ancient Discipline was like to be restor'd. That the Eminent Monsieur Ga [...]hé than Minister of Charenton was wonderfully edify'd by reading the Service: That the learned and holy Monsieur du Bosc the Minister of Cane did as much approve of one performing Divine Service after the way of the Church of England, as he that Officiates according to the manner of the French Reformed Churches: That the famous Monsieur Bochart the Minister of Alencom declar'd in favour of our Liturgy, as being very good and well ordered: That M [...]ssieurs Daillé, Drelincourt, Amyrant, and others, expressed no less esteem for it than Spanhemius Divinity-Reader of Geneva, who in his dedication of his Dubia Evangelica to Arch­bishop Ʋsher commended the public Worship of God in the Church of England as such that the like is scarcely to be found elsewhere: To these he adds the bright Te­stimony of the famous Monsieur Goyon Minister of Bourdeaux in these words, There is not one Minister (saith he) in all the Province of Aquitain that thinks his Consci [...]nce [Page 57] offended by using of the English Lytu [...]gy; but that the People Dream and Do [...]e, who are of such Opinion; and that those English Gentlemen do extreamly wrong us, who quote us to foment their Schism, which, he says, cannot but be very Scandalous.

And whereas, certain passages are alledg'd out of Bullingers Manuscript Epistles, to favour the pretences of our Separatists. I think it a necessary p [...]ece of Justic [...] to the Memory of that great Man, to clear him of that Imputation by which he is [...]ha [...]ged by some Persons, who misapply the words which a Reverend Author has ci [...]d out of him. For if any one please to consult the Epistles of Peter Martyr, may be soon convinc'd that he and Bullinger did conj [...]nctly declare in the same sense with Beza's before cited words,Vid. varias Epist. Petr. Martyr. ad N. N. An­glum. as is apparent from several Letters Peter Martyr sent to a Dignified Clergyman in Queen Eliz [...]beth's days, whose scruples had almost betrayed him into the Schism. Nor do I think that the M. S. of Bullinger, which are preserved in the Library of Basil, did on any account encourage the Separation, then made among us; much less ought they to be produced to cover the iniquities of our times, wherein we see the Unity of a Church broken with so much Pleasure and Liberty, and our Church charged by the Papist and Sectary, as being too charitable to them both: As tho it were a Distemper derived from our Clime, to be exempted from the extremities of the North and South; and to be Seated like the Queen of Ver­tues, in a secure Retreat between two dangerous Precipices.

I confess Beza speaking (in his Preface to his Grae-Lat Testament) cried out against a Reformation, and was wholly for the humour of a Transformation, which Fancy of his, did displease the English Church, which proceeded on more moderate Prin­ciples: For Catholic Charity which in conjunction with sound Doctrine and whole­some Discipline, is an especial Note of the true Church, and was infused into her by the Heavenly Missionary, whom her great High Priest at his Ascention into the Holy of Holies, Deputed and sent in the Simile of a Dove, to superintend and direct her, did eminently shine in the proceedings of our Reformers, and those who compiled the Constitutions of our Church: For the Canon tells us, Can. 1. so far was it from their purpose to forsake the Churches of Italy, France, Spain, Germany, or such like Churches in all things, which they held and practised, that as the Apology of the Church of England conf [...]sseth, it do's with R [...]verence, retain th [...]se Ceremonies, which do neither endammage the Church of God, nor offend the minds of sober Men, and only departed from them in those particular Points, wherein they are fallen, both from themselves in their Ancient Integrity, and from the Apostolical Churches, who were their first Founders. And truly, if it may be lawful to propose such a Question, I would demand of Beza's Friends, whether a Reformation of Abuses, be not altoge­ther as just and as safe as a Transformation from Evil? And whether in all Reforma­tions the method which Zanchy exprest, be not most advisable, which he would have consist not in the rooting out all that is found in the Church of Rome, but in rejecting what is fit to be rejected, and in preserving, what is fit to be pre­served. If this Tempter had prevail'd, our Popish Adversaries would have lost their bold Challenge and pretence to Antiquity; to which, they therefore ap­peal with such Effrontery, because some Protestants love not the discourse of it, but resign an argument that would have destroyed Rome with her own Weapons: And indeed, I see no reason when the ancient Landma [...]k was removed, why it should not rather have bin brought again to its own proper place, then that the Authority of our Fore-fathers should be despised, and every pretender lay out the Scite and Enclosure; of the Church, in what Platform he please. The word Transformation (however proper on other accounts) do's sound harsh and offensive in Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Regulations, and as our Church did not Relish the notion, so did it, and not without reasonable caused, isgust the most moderate Persons in the Roman Communi­on. For Thuanus was irreconcilable to such violent heats in the matters of Religion, and yet the same Author did encline favourably to moderate Reformers, as is ap­parent [Page 58] from the Character bestowed by him on the good Melancton, of whom he speaks by way of hearty commendation, by being Governed by such a peacable and serene temper, as to be constant to the Opinion, that there ought to be no conten­tion but for necessary things; and he further adds, that Melancton by his earnest avoiding all strife and contention, tho he could not escape the Reproaches of some of his own Brethren, yet he often experienc'd the humanity of strangers, and the good Will even of many who were not of his Judgment.

Whether Calvin was altogether of Beza's Opinion, is needless to inquire, but that he was sometimes too fond of his own Works, and too free in his Censure, do's indeed appear from his own writings: For he often spends his thoughts as a Plenepoten­tiary Dictator, and proceeds so far as to accuse some Foreign Protestants (the Hel­vetians I suppose he means) for allowing themselves to be called the Evangelici, not considering that the first Reformers did, in opposition to the Romish Traditions, and the Monkish Legends glory in the Name, and in the Reproach of Gospellers. Calvin indeed, had to do with a rough and ungovernable People at Geneva, and the reason which mov'd him to be so earnest in the Establishment of his Model, was, as we are in­form'd, out of Beza, for that he saw how needful those Bridles were to be put into the Jaws of that City. The judicious Mr. Hocker, who cites that passage, and speaks very favourably of Calvin (tho he convinces our home-bred Mimic Calvanists of dangerous mistakes and mischievous Practices) tells us, that what Calvin saw to be requisite for the People of Geneva, was by as great wisdom compassed; but he subjoyns, that wise Men, are Men, and the Truth, the Truth; and what Calvin did for the Esta­blishment of his Discipline, seems more commendable, than that which he taught for the countenancing of it Established; I may add, or for the countenancing of it, with Derogation to our English Reformers. This censure may be suppos'd to carry no great Prejudice with it, if we Reflect on Calvin's proceedings, during the trou­bles at Frankfort, when though he acknowledged the things he thought most unfit in our Liturgy (then used by our Exiles, who resorted thither in Queen Mary's days) were tolerable, and declared for his own part, how easie he was to yeild in all indiffe­rent things, such as External Rights are, yet was he too fierce and too partial an Ar­bitrator, or at least, suffer'd himself as one not well verst in the Liturgy (which he endeavoured to accomodate to his own Model, and that not in England, but at Frankfort, where his Orders were not disputed) to be misinform'd in the Relation of the business, and, as appears by Calvins Letter to Dr. Cox and others, in which, among other Concessions, he Recants his former sharpness against our Liturgy, he expresses his satisfaction for the use of it.

This instance, and indeed others which might be produc'd, do, I confess, prove that Calvin (tho he cannot in reason be alledg'd to justifie the Practices of our Dissenters) did not pay an equal respect to our Liturgy and Ceremonies as to his own: But as they shew the Charity of our English Divines, in corresponding with him in Love and Affection; so do they likewise, in some sort, betray the wretched Malice of our false Brethren, who, in those early times, which since, has bin the [...]r ordinary Pra­ctice, have traduc'd our Constitution, and thereby push'd on the Jesuites design (or bin at least their Tools) in widening the Breaches among Protestants. And truly, I am inclin'd, to think that those Foreigners, who are most severe against the Engl [...]sh Church, do not always give themselves the leisure or opportunity, to consult the true nature of the things, against which they exclaim, but take most matters by hear-say from our Champions of the Separation.

There is no Question to be made, but that any such Person as Andrew Melvin the Scotch-Man, may have Ranchor and Rhetoric enough to Calumniate our Church abroad, and to have a d sired success among undiscerning Men; but the Bate do's not always take with the more Learned and Judicious: For Hypocrites and Defamers are so far honest, as sometimes to over-act their parts, and then the Wolfs Paw do's extend it self through the borrowed Fleece. Monsieur Goyon, who himself was im­pos'd [Page 59] on, thought himself very happy, when he had discovered the Treachery of such Canting Syrens; and, in a Letter mentioned by Durel, exprest, that he and his Brethren had bin strangely deceived by what had bin related to them, touching the most noted Sect of our Dissenters. That he ever imagined them to have bin a Peo­ple that followed the same Order as the Churches in France, but, it seems, saith he, they are far from it, and their Description shews them to be a strange Party, not fit to be tolerated. How Monsieur Goyon! Are the Martyrs of Peace, are the sober and the self denying Men not fit to be tolerated? What is then to be done in the Case? In short, the Monsieur conceived, that the best remedy was to reduce them to the Episcopal Government, and that otherwise he held it impossible, the Church of England should be ever quet, or flourish. Certainly, if the Dissenters have a just ground for their Separation, the French Calvinists, with our Examiner and the rest of the Clergy, make up the most wilful and positive part of Mankind: And tho I expect a worse Title from them my self, because I dare speak the Truth, yet, I can­not but expose the Malicious Artifice of such vile misrepresenters, as many of them are, that Hunt in Couples with the Roman Foxes.

We read in the Specialities of Bishop Hab's Life, that Segnior Ascanio Negro, and another Italian Captain, wondered to hear from him, that we had any Baptism in E [...]gland, the Romish Priests having deluded them with a different Relation; and af­ter the same manner, many Hugonots have exprest their surpize, that our Baptism and the Eucharist are so purely administred, when the wretched Fugitives of our Church had possest their thoughts with the Chymera of a frightful Cross, of a pro­fane and too forward Charity in Eating and Drinking with sinners, and with strange Idaeas of Popery and Superstition. In the same Specialities, we read of a Conflict the good Bishop had with a Sorbonist (a Prior of the Carmelites) who took occasion by our Kneel [...]ng at the Receipt of the Sacrament, to persuade all the Company of our acknowledgment of a Transubstantiation, but that he soon satisfied the Cavil, shewing upon what ground this meet posture obtained with us, and that the Carme­lite grew furious upon his Conviction, and with his vehement Associates fell into a down-right railing u [...]on our Church and Religion. Lewis de Moulin, who learnt to speak English after the Tone of a Scotch Covenanter, pretending to render an ac­count of this Affair, as Printed by Bishop Hall, do's in abuse to the good Bishop, invert the design of the Relation to the prejudice of him, and of our Church; for he do's both joyn with the Carmelite in his Invectives against her, and quotes this passage out of the Specialities as a sufficient ground to warrant his uncharitableness, pressing the Reader with the necessity of thinking, that the Bishop was rather confounded by the Sorbonist then the Sorbonist by him.

And truly, tho this same Lewis (unworthy the Name of Moulin) had supplied the Age with wretched Invectives and misapply'd Stories, with which he most ma­liciously misrepresented our Church and Church Governours; yet our Clergyman had the g [...]od Nature to help him out at a Dead lift. For tho he acknowledges what he wrote, might be beyond Reason and Decency, yet we are told by him 'tis very l [...]kely,P. 27. that the uncharitableness of the Church of England against the Protestants abroad, particularly of the French Church, whereof Lewis du M [...]ulin was a Member, might animate him a little be­yond his design. But I pray, what was his design? Was it not to fill the Age with the noise of the Church of E [...]gland, Popery, and to throw his Venom upon our Discipline? Had he not then the same design on Foot, as when he wrote in favour of the Regicides, and Translated Milton for the benefit of the Saints, and trampled like another Melvin, upon the Laws of our State, as well as of our Church? But with submission what is the uncharitableness of the Church of England (I regard not the passions of private Men among us) against the French Churches. King Charles the Martyr, whose sincerity to the Principles of our Church, was neither bribed by flatter­ing hopes, nor countervoted by his fears, tho he past through the greatest Scene of [Page 60] Terrors, Imprisonment and Death: Freely acknowledged, that as he was no Judge over the Reformed Churches,Third Pa­per to Mr. Hender­son. so neither would he Cen­sure them. And the Reviewers of our Liturgy, whose Authority may be supposed to carry the sense of our Church, do in a few words give us a Notion of her uncharitableness: for in the short Discourse of Ce­remonies prefix'd to our Service Book, in which those good Fathers rendred their Reasons for retaining some, and abolishing others; in these doings, say they, we condemn no other Nations, nor prescribe any thing but to our own People only: For we think it convenient, that every Country should use such Ce­remonies as they shall think best, to the setting forth Gods Honour and Glory, and to the reducing the People to a most perfect and godly living without Error and Super­stition, &c. What uncharitable Spirit did Peter the Father of this Moulin find in our Church? He embrac'd her Communion, vindicated her Authority, and admired her Constitution. What uncharitableness did Peter the Brother of Lewis find? He openly protested against the Scotch Covenanters, and told them it was far from the desire of the Hugonots, Moulin's Letter to a Scotchman, &c. Anno. 1640. P. 2. that a conformity with the Reformed Churches of France should be misapplied, as a pretence of expelling Bishops, much less as a President, to take up Arms against the Soveraign. He thought our Church not at all the worse, tho it was run down by the Clamor of a Tumultuous League, and with the noise of an Holy War. Finally, what uncharitableness had Lewis du Moulin to object? It was in short this; that we were Governed by Bishops; and that He, with his Friends, could not enjoy Preferments in our Churches, unless they would admit the Authority of our Laws to take place in our Nation, which as they do not extend to Foreign parts, so do they not Unchurch other Protestant Churches, who have Laws and Customs of their own.

If any one please to consult the Learned Discourse of the Reverend Dr. Puller, concerning the Moderation of the Church of England, he will find such Solid and Authentic Testimonies of her admirable and equal Temper, of her Christian Pru­dent Resolves in Matters of Judgment and Practice, as may abundantly satisfie him, if he be not Deaf to a just Conviction, that her Temperament and Charity, is no less Primitive, then her Doctrine Evangelical: She do's not indeed, suppose her self the worse, because some Sanctimonious Pharisees mis-represent her, nor will she Purchase the esteem of any rigid Calvinians abroad, by parting with her Establish'd Rules, in favour of a Foreign Scheme: Instead of this, she has often oppos'd, both her Authority and her Arguments to such of them, who Magnifying their own Con­stitutions, have Vilified and Traduc'd hers. But as the Censures she makes, are the Result of Charity, as well as of Justice, so do's she not Espouse the wrathful Heats and Passions, and unjustifiable Zeal of any of her Sons.

And, whereas Dr. Peter Heylin was tax'd by Lewis du Moulin, and by our Examiner,P. 30. as too severe upon Calvin, they might, if they had pleased, have observed, that the Keys of our Church, do not Hang at Mr. Heylin's, nor at any other particular Doctors Girdle, nor is their Authority esteemed a conclusive Article against the suffrage of our Church: For (as a Reve­rend Author, in answer to the Dialogues of Dr. Stillingfleet's Popish Adversary, Notes) tho Peter Heylin was a Man of very good Parts and Learning,Conference between Rom. Priest. Fanat. Chap. and Eng. Di­vine. Pag. 94. and did write History pleasantly enough, yet in some things, he was too much a Party, to be an Historian, and being deeply concerned in some quarrels himself, all his Histo­rical Writings about our Church, do plainly discover which side he Espoused, which do's not seem to agree with the Im­partiality of an Historian; but for all this, he was far from being a Friend, either to the Church, or to the Court of Rome: And next to Puritanism, I believe, he hated Popery most, so that if he had bin Alive, and a Papist had gone to thank him [Page 61] for the service he had done the Roman Catholics, in all probability he had provo­ked him to have written as sharply against them as ever he wrote against the Puri­tans; and therefore the Doctor cannot be accused of being Popishly affected, as Lewis the Moulinite would perswade the World.

And truly though our best Church-men are gover­ned by a moderate temper, and do with BishopDifference between Chri­stian Subjection and Rebellion, pag. 509. Bil­son a [...]knowledg Calvin's great pains, and good La­bours in the Church of God; though with Bishop Morton they not only give him the right hand of fel­lowship, butAnswer to the Popish mo­derate Answerers Part. 2. Chap. 5. call him their Master, andIdem. in Sentent. de pace inter Evangelic. procur. p. 5. place him among the Stars of the first Magnitude in the Church. Though withPref. to his Eccles. Polit. Hooker they allow him to have been in­comparably the best man that ever the French Church did enjoy since the hour it enjoyed him; though with the famous Whitaker they think himDuplic. de Authorit. SS. Scriptur. fol. 23. Idem. l. 1. fol. 3. a Renowned and most worthy Servant of Jesus Christ, and to have had more solid Reason, Learning and Wisdom in one finger than Stapleton the great Champion of Popery in his whole Body; yet with the same Whitaker they will not undertake to accompany Calvin beyond the Verge of Truth; much less can we suppose (nor would Calvin, were he now alive, desire) they should for his sake encourage our English Separatists, who being guilty of a manifest Schism endeavour to fix the odium of their own guilt on him. Our Bi­shops and Clergy do indeed judg Calvin worthy of a sincere respect, but they see not any necessity that English men should be Calvinists, and there­by take up with an [...],Vid. Sentent. Davenat. Edit. Londin. p. 116. Our own Country-man Cran­mer, who was as great a Man as Calvin, and a Martyr too, has not been thought worthy such an honour, and therefore we must be excused if we refuse to pay a Tribute to a Foreigner, that is only due to Christ, who is the Soveraign Bishop of the Universe. Our Church does not dispute Calvin's Jurisdiction in his Consistory at Geneva, nor has she at any time interrupted the Synodical Interviews at Charenton, or la Rochelle, but she does not like, that Calvin's ashes, like those of Samuel, should be subject to Charms, or that after so many years rest he should speak from the Tripos of a Westminster Assembly. And truly albeit Calvin had long before resign'd his Breath, yet the Covenanting Presbyters who borrowed the Title of his Authority to justifie their bold Adven­tures punish'd his Memory in a viler sort than the Egyptians did their Malefactors, whom they confined to the embraces of a putrid Carcass; though Calvin was dead, yet his Writings did speak, and speak aloud to the confusion of those merciless In­novators; and therefore our Church may with just reason be suppos'd to enter­tain more honourable thoughts of Calvin than our Separatists have done, who ex­pound him with a false Gloss, and most grosly pervert his sense.

The clamor of our Dissenters has enforc'd our Clergy to deliver their minds with freedom, and to say that Calvin, however learned and pious, however zealous and constant for Gods service, was not only a man, but subject to passions and to er­rors too. They were indeed willing to believe that his Ecclesiastical Scheme, by which he excluded Bishops from a just Jurisdiction, was rather a matter of force than of choice; but since some men perswade us, 'twas his Principle not only to advance the Aerian Parity of Presbyters and Bishops at Geneva, but to banish both the name and the office of Bishops from other Reformed Churches, where they were allowed and established, our Clergy have thought it no crime either to oppose that Levelling design, or to confirm their People in a right judgment by necessary Arguments. This gave occasion to many Learned and good men, who were not in all points of Mr. Heylin's judgment, to deliver their thoughts very freely of the Foreign Protestants; thus Archbishop Ʋsher, who as Dr. Par observes, declared [Page 62] his opinion, That Episcopus & Presbyter gradu tantum differunt non ordine, Dr. Parr's Ap­pend. pag. 6. and consequently in places where Bishops cannot be had, Or­dination by Presbyters standeth valid, does however give his opi­nion (though not without Christian Charity) that the Churches in the Low-Countries who live under a Free State, are not so excusable in that defect as the Churches in France who live under a Popish Power, and cannot do what they would, to which he adds, that the Ordination made by such P [...]esbyters as have severed themselves from their Bishops cannot possibly by him be ex­cused from being Schismatical. Nor did the Learned Mr. Mason in his Defence of the Ordination of Ministers beyond the Seas of a different judgment;Idem. pag. 7. for though he grants the French Churches, having a constant President of the Presbytery, to enjoy the sub­stance of the Episcopal Office, yet whereas their Discipline is still defective, he wishes them in the Bowels of Christ by all means to redress and reform it, and to conform themselves to the ancient custom of the Church of Christ. So that after all,Id. pag. 7, 8. as the Reverend Doctor hopes, this Question, whether Episcopacy be ordo or gradus, will prove only a difference in words rather than substance, between those of the Lord Primate's Judgment, and those of Dr. Heylin, since they are both agreed in the main Points of the Contro­versie between them and the Presbyterians, viz. That the Bishops were Ordained in the Church by the Apostles themselves, from the direction, or at least approbation of our Sa­viour himself, being the Stars which St. John saw in his Vision in our Lord Christ's own hand, and that they are permanent immutable Officers in the Church, which cannot subsist without them, but in cases of pure necessity, and lastly that those Presbyters which in Churches founded and setled with Bishops, do separate from them are guilty of Schism, &c.

The charge of Schism is very grievous; but yet we see that Ʋsher, tho a Person of a moderate Spirit, and a sincere Charity towards Calvin and his Brethren, hath charg'd some Persons with it. I am certain those Presbyters that make a Separation from our English Bishops, who, as they dare not deny, do own the Soveraign Autho­rity of Jesus Christ, let their pretences be never so Magisterial, they are not true Friends of Calvin, who throws an Anathema on them: They spit in the Face of Gualte­rus, who condemned them as the Morose; they g [...]in-say the words of Beza, who wish'd our Hierarchy to be perpetual; they accuse [...]anchie, and the Church of Heidel­burg, of canting flattery, because they saluted Jewel and our other Prelates with the Title of Pious and of Holy Bishops, and wish'd, that by their means, God would Build up his Kingdom: In fine, they run counter to the judgment of Bucer, Peter Martyr, Spanhemius, Sadeel, Grotius, Diodat, Casaubon, De Bleau, Claude, Turretin and the other Glories and Ornaments of the Foreign Churches: And therefore, I was amazed, when I read the dreadful Unchurching Description (recited in the Apology) which Mr. B—r. animated with a Spirit far different from that of Calvin, and his Successors, gave us of Episcopacy: And I think I had reason to say (not­withstanding the Examiner judges it not to the purpose) that Persons actuated by such an uncharitable Principle, love not a Bishop, be he ever so good, that they pity not a Bishop, be he ever so afflicted, that they envy those Bishops which do conform, and rejoyce at their calamity, who are suspended.

But the Examiner, when I said, that any one who is a sworn Defender of Mr. B—rs. and of Lewis du Moulin's Description of Episcopacy can never be charitable to Bishops, because they are Bishops, is pleased to smooth up the business by retorting, that there are others of the other side (our Clergyman means of the Episcopal Party) nothing behind him in Invectives against the Dissenters.P. 27. Truly, this is a notable push, and as much to the purpose as if he had bin silent: For, put the case the Epi­scopal Men have done ill in Writing such invectives, is Mr. B—r. excusable, because others are on a like score to blame? Or is any Person justified by the Follies and Wick­edness [Page 63] of other Men? At this rate, should any one call Scaramuchio a Ridiculous Fellow, Scaramuchio might Evade that Character by telling him that Harliquin and Pollichinello were also very ridiculous. Would not our merry Examiner, who is no unfit Judge and Dictator in such company, give them a Learned Reading, and tell them that all the Three were not the less ridiculous for being equally so? Would they [...]ot submit to our Clergy-man's Opinion, and confess they were not only reconciled to their Names, but content that the Examiner should make the fourth jolly Blade among them? And indeed, 'twould be scarce worth the Expense of a Dispute, whe­ther the Church might receive any great loss, if our Clergyman should exchange his Garment for such a Livery, his Natural Talent of Buffoonry, rendring him more ca­pable of an Employment on the Stage, then to supply the Vacancy of a Bishoprick, or to undertake the terrible Office of a Preacher.

But it may be the Examiner expects I should seriously consider with him the na­ture of those Invectives our Epi [...]copal men have given out against the Dissenters. I confess I am not willing to blow up the flame, or to add fuel to a fire that ought in Christian Charity to be extinguished; but yet to gratifie our Learned Clergy-man, I so far concur with him as to allow that the Church-party have preach'd and writ­ten against the Dissenters, and that none have appear'd more strenuously in the Cause than our greatest Champions against Popery.

For how can any sober Person bear with patience the barbarous and spightful stuff which has been vented by some of their most topping Professors against the Orders, Canons and D [...]scipline of the English Church? Our Prayers pass with them for the Vomit of Antichrist, and our Ceremonies are censured as the Plague of the Babylonish Egypt; they have called Episcopacy Baali [...]m, and our Presbyters the sp [...] ­rious and Bastard Sons of Belial; and tell the world (for they sometimes pretend to Wit as well as the Examiner) that our Professors wear Caps like Frogs-heads, and that they croak in the Chambers of Kings. I am weary of repeating what they have published in Print after their supercilious and scornful manner against all Bi­shops and Ministers of our Church in general, for they except neither Cranmer nor Ridley, nor Latimer, nor Jewel, nor Ʋsher, but by an uncharitable censorious­ness condemn the best of men whom all the Protestant Churches reverence; so that our Doctors must be excused if by the Word of God, and the irreprovable Authorities of Antiquity they have oppos'd the violent and s [...]urrilous Extravagance.

Nor are we to be deluded into the conceit that Peter Heylin and others of his time were the first that oppos'd their Invectives to the growth of the unhappy Sch [...]sm; for from the first Establishment of our Church, the Separatists have born the misfortune of being esteem'd no true friends either of the Peace of the Go­vernment, or of the Unity of the Catholic Church.

Queen Elizabeth of Blessed Memory was very sensible of the spreading evil; and therefore in one of her Speeches to Her Parliament, she admonish'd her Bishops to be vigilant against the new Sectaries and Disciplinarians, and that Lear [...]ed Queen, who was the most C [...]lebrated Reformer that ever Europe produc'd, did often ex­press her dislike and abhorrence of the Ring-leaders of the Faction. She often ex­perienc'd the subtil mischi [...]fs that were carried on [...]y a sort of men, who preten­ding extraordinary Purity and Illuminat [...]on, fill'd all places with their mock Sun­light, and she fou [...]d the same zeal scattering, like a Comet, a bad influence in those State, and we may soon guess what reason she had to be no better enclin'd to those Nominal Puritans by what her Lord Keeper Puckering delivered in his famous Speech in Parliament, when speaking her sense, he openly testified that they had persecuted her Maj [...]sty vigorously, and opened the Door to the Spanish Invasion, and that when in the giddiness of their [...]pirits they laboured to advance a new Eldership, they did nothing but disturb the good repose of the Church, and of the Commonwealth.

Bishop Jewel also, who was most dear to the great Master [...] of the French, Ger­man [Page 64] and Helvetian Churches, was troubled and perplext in spirit against the Disorders of the Separate Communions,See his Life prefixt to his Apology, Anno 1685. p. 35. which was carried on by Popish Priests in the Masquerade of Puritan Prea­chers, and in his famous Sermon at St. Pauls-Cross, discovered, what he thought of those men. By whose name, said he, shall I call you? I would I might call you Brethren; but alas, this Heart of yours is no: Brotherly: I would I might call you Christians, but alas you are no Christians: I kn [...]w not by what name I shall call you; for if you were Brethren, you would love as Brethren; if you were Christians you would agree as Christians. What entertain­ment he received after this Sermon from the Dissenters of those times, is suffici­ently exprest by Archbishop Whitgift in these words: They, said he, will not stick in commending themselves to defame all others, yea even the notable Jewel, whose Labour and Learning they envy. It was strange, said he, to hear so notable a Bishop, so learned a Man, so stout a Champion of true Religion, so painful a Prelate, so ungratefully and despitefully used by a sort of wavering, wicked and wretched Tongues; but 'tis their manner be you never so well learned, never so painful, so zealous, so vertuous, all is no­thing with them, but they will deprave you, rail on you, back-bite you, invent lyes on you, and spread false Rumors, as if you were the vilest Persons on the whole Earth. I would advise our Examiner to beware of the same spirit.

I know that the Successors of the Puritans, like their Forefathers, have the mo­desty to reckon this Sermon of Jewel to have been an Invective of a Canonical stamp; but 'twas usual with the Defenders of our Reformation in those early days to be guilty of many such Invectives. Dr. William Barlow a famous Disputant a­gainst the Popish Doctrines in the same Age gave a lively Character of the Puri­tans, and of their transcendent zeal to the common Interest of the Reformation. He tells us,Defence of the Protest. Articles, pag. 202, 203. That Malice and Prejudice made them irreconcilable to our Church, and that like Hedghogs, as Pliny reports, who being la­ded with Nuts and Fruit, if the least Filberd fall off, will fling down all the rest in a pettish humour, and beat the ground for anger with their Bristles, they so left our Church and remain'd obstinate for Trifles and Accidents, things in themselves indifferent, though the Princes Autho­rity had made them necessary. And he concludes, That their snarling had fed the Papists humour, and stuffed their Books with Reproaches, who otherwise had wanted matter to up­braid our Church withal if the others had learnt of the God of Peace to have kept the Ʋnity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace.

With what extasie of joy and feeling complacency did the Jesuit that compos'd the Moderate Answer, jump in a Circle with the Author of the Puritanical Admoni­tion? The Admonition, said he, to the Parliament, written with no small consent useth these words, That no man, in whom there is any spark of Grace or Conscience can live in the Church of England, whose Inhabitants be all Infidels, going to the Churches of Bi­shops and Archbish [...]ps, whose Government is Antichristian and Devilish.

Thus far the Popish Moderate Answerer, and Dr. Morton, who undertook to muzzle this barking Priest, was pleased to favour both him and the Puritans with a notable Invective.Mortons Re­ply to the Mo­derate Answer, pag. 19. The Writer of the Admonition, said he, and you (O Papists) may both joyn fellowship; you dedicate your Book to the King, he to the Parliament. He pretends the consent of a thousand; you imply a thous [...]nd thousand: He with all his consent is not many; and you (for ought you well pretend) but one, both invi­sible and namel ss, neither of both able to make up any great consent, except you multiply the names (as Garnet the Jesuit did his own) of Alias A, alias B, &c. You see what is the Malady of this Admonitor, namely, to condemn our Religion only because of Bishops, as (in his illiterate brain) an Order Popish, and therefore Antichristian, &c. Let us hear something else which may prove Protestants guilty of the Imputa­tion of Turcisms and Atheisms.Id. pag. 20. Look upon England, saith Lewis [Page 65] d' Orleans, the French Rabsacab, and you shall find it to be an Isle of Men, who eat mens fl sh, and are deformed like the Cyclopses, and have not among them the lest foot-steps of Catholic Religion. Thus the Vulgar in Spain are said in their Chri­stian Charity to have b [...]wailed the misery of the English: Alas, Id. pag. 21. that th [...]se men have not the knowledg of Christ! being perswaded by their Monks that we wo [...]ship the Devils, &c.

Can any Invective be too severe for this Admonitor, and for the no less mode­rate Papalins? The one calls our Government, the other our Worship Devilish. I fear were St. John alive he would either have an equal share in the giving them Sa­lutation with which he [...]osted the Heretic Cerinthus, or else have stiled them the Heirs apparent of the first-born of Satan. And truly of all Devils, there is none more dangerous than the Demon Meridianus that does borrow the silver wings of Purity, and changes himself into an Angel of Light.

It would not correspond with my design, which, in compliance to our Examiner's Objections, I have already exceeded, to consider in what stile others of our Church­men, before the time that Dr. Heylin made any Figure in the world, have answer­ed the Calumny and the uncharitable Spirit of the Separatists; for they have al­ways rail'd against our Hierarchy and our Discipline, and have been as often con­quer'd by dint of Argument; nor have the best of our Doctors who now submit to the present happy Government, and thank God for our Deliverance, thought it any blasphemy against Heaven, or any Violation of Christian Love to give the world a just account of the mischief of the Separation; but in our Examiner's, and some other new moulded Clergy-mens Opinion (who endeavour to palliate the Dis­senters Sayings and Actions be they never so lav [...]sh against our Church) it is all In­vective that is deliver'd on this Account, though 'tis such Invective that they can­not ward off by the Sophistry of Misrepresentation, nor by their other little Arts, their usual mockery, trick and evasion.

But the Dissenters have great reason to be very thankful to our Clergy-man, as for his many other favours to them, so for telling us thatPag. 30. the co­lour he puts on their Actions (he respects particularly their Ad­dresses) will be the rather believed, because it comes from one who is of a different Communion; indeed this is prettily observed by him, and yet it remains doubtful who he is, I have in some measure evinc'd that he is no great Friend to the Doctrine of the Apostles, and of our National Church, and he has been so kind to the Dissenters to inform them that he is not of their Communion. Why may not our Author therefore be one of the Jesuits Family in Holy Orders, at least, why may not the Libel be the Product of a Club of Hobbists, Dei [...]ts, or other Latitudinarians, who are fixt to no Religion and Church at all: However be the Ex­aminer of what Communion he please, he must not pretend to be an absolute Dicta­ator to the Age, nor must he arrogate to himself the Ipse Dixit of Pythagoras; for the colour he puts on things do not change their nature, nor will our Church be the worse, nor the Dissenters the better for his being of a different Communion.

Our Author, who in one Page has been pleas'd to gratifie the Dissenters, in the next does express vexation of mind against another sort of Peo­ple. What Ridiculous stuff, saith he,Pag. 31. have we been vext with in the two last Reigns about Passive Obedience, and we thought the Af­fair was over, but it is again rouzed up from the Grave. Let the Apologizer play the fool as much as he will about this old Tool of Passive Obedience, it has been a Thousand times exploded by better Pens.

Alas! Good Clergyman, to whom the ridiculous Stuff, and the old Tool of Pas­sive Obedience in the two last Reigns, occasioned vexation of Spirit! Was it not enough that Saunders, Campian and Father Parsons, who carried on their Volumi­nous Plot against Queen Elizabeth; or that Garnet, Bellarmime, Suarez, Eudaemon of Crete, and the other Popish Marmaluks, who opposed both the Authority and the [Page 66] VVritings of her Succeessor were offended with the like Stuff contained in our Homilies, and expl [...]ded the Doctrine, as a temporary submission, be­coming the Infant Minority of the Church? Was it not enough, that the Malm [...]bury Prophet, who both lived in the Dark, and leapt into it at his Death, was vext with the like stuff, which the Author of the Whole Duty of Man, had re­commended to the Practice of good Christians? How did the Leviathan dash our Shores? How did Behemoth bellow against that famous Casuist? But has the exploded stuff bin again Revived in the two last Reigns? Why, all that can be said in the Case, is briefly thus; Several Thousands very Orthodox and Loyal Clergymen (many of whom were formerly Sequestred by the Religious Rebels that worried their King to Death, sparing not the Majesty of his Crown, nor regarding the Authority of his Tears) thought it their Duty to encourage, and to Preach up a Doctrin in the days of King Charles and King James II. which they conceived might Defend these Prince, from the like Insults of Sacrilegious Men. Besides, this old Tool is much in Vogue among King William's best and most faithful Su [...]jects of the Clergy; and I dare believe, that the London Divines (so much Celebrated over all Europe for their Learning and Integrity) have often occasioned vexation to our Author on the same account, if he has either frequented their Churches, or pe [...]used their Printed Ser­mons, by which they have conveyed their Opinion to us. Their Learned Pens have secured the Doctrine from the Cheats and Juggles of designing Men: And dare our Examiner in favour to the Saints of the Roman and Bethlehem Martyrology affi [...]m, that the Doctrine has bin exploded by the best Men? Where are the Thousand he brags of? They are no doubt of the same Invisible Society, that Compos'd the old Admo­nition to the Parliament. Very few, either of our English Bishops, or their Clergy are of the number: And, must they therefore be accounted Non-resisting Rebels to God and their Country, because they boldly assert a Primitive Truth? What shall we think of the Testimony of the Reverend Dr. Hickman, who in his late incomparable Sermon before the Commons,19. Octob. 1690. who, I sup­pose, were as competent Judges of Truth and Error as our Author adventured to declare against this principle of the Examiner.

The Doctrine of Obedience to Kings, saith he, has bin so frequently discussed of late, so Learnedly demonstrated, and so undeniably Establish'd among us, that there is no need to in­sist on it. Only give me leave to say, that notwithstanding the unreasonable Cavils of gain-saying Men, yet Passive Obedience always was, and I hope always will be, the Doctrin and Practice of the Church of England. I am sure 'tis a Doctrine of which no Church need be ashamed, and no King be afraid.

I suppose our Examiner do's take himself to be loudly affronted by this great Chaplain, and it must strangely disorder his Pulse, that the Dr. should presume to Preach in a Dialect so repugnant to his Sentiments: And indeed, how could our Parliament suffer him to keep the Pulpit in Prejudice of our Examiner? Or desire that Sermon to be Printed without his especial Imprimatur affix'd to it? Certainly our Examiner will be apt to give them the same Character as he has bin pleased to pass ( [...]olante manu) on the whole Body of the Clergy, and tax them with some thing of wilfulness and positiveness of humour beyond the rest of Mankind, nor will he be afraid to tell them, that they may play the Fool as much as they will about this old Tool, since it has bin exploded by his and a Thousand other better Pens.

In truth our Examiner is very manerly, and cares not whom he affronts that thwarts his Humour. But why must Passive Obedience be an old Tool? Is it because some of the Non-Swearers are as much inclined as formerly to the Doctrin? Then the King need not be afraid of it: Is it because our Bishops and others Practis'd it in King James's days? Of this our Church need not be ashamed: Is it because it was derived from the Patriarchs, Prophets and Apostles? It is then old I confess, but not a Tool: But if our Author please to consider, he may on second thoughts, find it (if rightly stated) to be no such Enemy of Self-preservation, nor to the [Page 67] maintenance of our Natural and Civil Rights. We may Petition, we may hum­bly Remonstrate, we may make use of the Laws to gain our Repose, we may provide for our selves by Flight, or accept of a Deliverance, when we are truly convinc'd that the Providence of God do's hand it to us. This I think is our Case under King William's Government, to whom as I have Sworn, so do I esteem him the Messenger of the great God to secure us: And as St. Peter thought it his Duty to be Obedient to the Angels that was dispatch'd from Heaven, to give him enlarge­ment; so do we, who have taken the Oaths, judge it our Duty to accept of a Deli­verance that has bin attended with a Chain of wonders.

However, as we are not so Fanciful, to expect a continuation of Miracles, when the great work of our temporal Redemption is once fully compleated, or to suppose every thing to be Gods Immediate Call, whereby Men usually flatter the interest of their corrupt inclinations, so must we be cautious what we attempt in points of such Nicety. Tho Paul and Silas had by the same miraculous Power of God, an opportunity as well as Peter, to have escaped out of Prison, yet they did not make use of that pretence of Providence, least they should have brought a scandal on the Christian Church. Their Bonds and Chains did indeed drop off their Bodies, and the Gates flew open, but they had no direct order to quit their Stations, and they chose rather to remain confin'd, tho against Law and Custom, which Entituled the Citizens of Rome to better Priviledges, than to hazard the Honour of their Reli­gion, or the Life of their Keepers. In short, tho Liberty be a thing natural for Men to crave, and suffering a circumstance no ways desireable, yet we must not go out of Gods Road to obtain the one, or to avoid the other.

But our Clergyman seems to Reflect on the Writings, Sermons and Practices of some Persons, who in the late Reign, made a wrong interpretation of the Doctrin, and yet, this is very little to his purpose, as will appear, if we in brief summ up his Argument. Let us therefore observe the grand stroke of the Consequence, Passive Obedience has bin misapply'd by wrong Interpreters (let us also so far gra­tifie the Examiner, as to place the Apologist among them) Ergo, Passive Obedience is an old Tool! This is finely concluded; and by the same Rule we may proceed, and say, The Scribes of the Sanhedrim depraved the Writings of Moses, by their foul Glosses, Tresilian de la Zouche, and other Judges, abused our Laws by corrupt Judg­ment, the Arrians perverted the sense of the Apostolic Records; Ergo, the Law and the Gospel are an old Tool. At this rate, we may burn our Statutes, throw our Bibles into the Flames, and be guilty of the worst sort of slavish Resignation, and remain silent, and mute, whil'st the young Tool of a Clergyman do's Preach against Righteousness and Truth, and bids the common People beware of all such Parlia­mentary Sermons, which do not allow of an actual Resistance, when he or his Friends blow the Trumpet for the good Old Cause.

I have in some sort considered the Principles of our Examiner, both as they re­fer to Religion, and Civil Discipline, but it would fill a Volum to describe his Tem­per, according to his real and intrinsic Merit. His own words are a sufficient Com­ment upon him, and therefore, we cannot think he do's pretend to much Sanctity, for he would then be the greatest Invective against himself. Indeed, be he what he will, he hath in part discover'd his shapes, and we thank him for the Favour. And, truly at what Random his faculty do's bolt, may appear from the Interpreta­tion he puts on harmless expressions; for when I discours'd of Christian Submissi­on under Afflictions, and proved that by this Principle, the Suspended Bishops could not encourage their Friends (be th [...]y never so many) to any Seditious Practices against the present Government; he answers, I should do well to leave out such bragging Threats: Agreable to which,Pag. 32. Pag. 15, 16. is another of his Passages, in which he examines, what need the Man tell us, that these Fathers have endeavour'd by their Tears to cure the unfortunate Princes Wounds? Do's our Author, says he, venture to put them in a new Fright [Page 68] of the Mob? On the same File, we may place a discovery that we Ad­drest after the Kings Pardon,Pag. 23. when in the Page foregoing, he allows we Addrest, when the Pardon was only in intention. These with many other Articles are, I confess, unanswerable; at least they will bear no other Reply, then that they are inconsistent: Nor indeed, do I hold my self obliged to answer all our Examiners Flights, and therefore shall dance attendance no further after him in his Extravagant Maze, through which he is hurried by the Ignis Fatuus of a giddy Fury: But I leave him to beat the Air by himself.

And, now let our Author be as scurrilous as he please, let him steep his Pen in the Asphaltites of Sodom, and drench it in the Vinegar and Gaul of the accursed Jews; let him Examine, Reflect, Traduce, with his utmost Skil, it is my comfort, that I suffer not without the company of most Celebrated Men. He that can represent not only our Grand-jury of Gloucester-shire, but the Bishop of London, and our best Doctors as Ridiculous, for Signing an Address in favour of our Established Religi­on: He that can Rail at our sincere inclination to King William, for affirming that English Bishops ought to be serviceable to him. He that can say, it is Monkery in a Prelate to be Seraphical, and to imitate the Purity of Angels. He that can pronounce, that for a Non-juror to be destitute of Pride, Prejudice and Passion, is to teach the World how to give him uncharitable Names: He that can enquire, whether any thing can be said worse of the Bishops, then that they mourn in Spirit for the Miseries of Protestants: He that can demand, where we Learn'd that Can­ting Expression of Holy Bishops and of Holy Tears: He that can maintain, that glorious Exploits become not Bishops, and that gallantry is a word too material for the Sons of Peace: He that can call one of the great Doctrines of the Church an old Tool, and can speak in favour of those, who explode the Practice of the best Christians, and the Language of the Gospel: He that can thus Blaspheme God, Li­bel good Men, and do the Work of the Devil, to traduce the Brethren; let him assume the Title of a Clergyman, with what pretence he please: We may justly conclude, since a Tree is known by his Fruits, that he is neither the greatest of Saints, nor the least of Sinners, and, I am sorry, he should take occasion from any Juvenile Impertinencies, or Incongruities in the Apology, thus to Publish his own mistakes altogether inconsistent, as with the Religion we profess, so with the gravity of a Divine.