banish us, rack us, burn us, yet we'll never complain of Perfecution: Severity unjust and unreasonable it may be, but it can never be that which the Scripture knows by the Name of Perfecution.

Does our Holy Mother the Lawfully-eftablifh'd Church of England curtail any of the Commandments of God? Or do we teach Men to break any of them? Do we inftruct or bring up any Persons to Ignorance, Superftition or Idolatry? Do the genuine Sons or Fathers of our Church preach up Herefy or Schifm, Sedition or Rebellion? Do any of our Establish'd Principles infer fuch damnable Practices? Or do we force Men by the Obligation of fecret Oaths, or publick Proteftations, Covenants or Engagements to fuch Unchriftian Practices on Pain of any Penalties whatsoever? Could, indeed, any thing of this Nature be proved against us, we fhould be proved Perfecutors with a Witness. But it is our Happiness, that tho' we are expos'd to all the malicious Calumnies of the most virulent Wits, tho' all our Actions are canvas'd by the most harth and partial Cenfures, we, yet, of the Eftablifh'd. Church of England, chule the Royal Ermin's Motto, and would rather be dead than Jpotted; and the Dirt thrown upon us by the moft fpiteful of our Adverfaries is wiped off with as much Eafe as it is dawb'd on with Industry.

As for the Sentence of Excommunication, it confifts only of Words pronounced by Men, and thofe fuch as pretend not to Infallibility, and who flight it more than thofe who complain of it so bitterly? If it be justly inflicted, what Sin are they guilty of, who inflict it? If it be pafs'd

un

unjustly; and there appear any reasonable Evidence of the Injuftice; none ever found it very difficult to obtain an Abfolution; and never yet did any of our Spiritual Governors excommunicate any Man for his Crimes, with fuch Satisfaction as they abfolv'd him with upon his Repentance. And, tho' I make no doubt but that many a good and innocent Man has fuffer'd under the Government of a just and merciful Prince, by Sentence of Law, only upon the falfe Accufations of perjur'd Witneffes; yet I'm fure that no Man of Senfe will ever condemn a Nation or its Laws as wicked or unjust for fuch unhappy Events: Nor will he look upon the Judges as Perfecutors, because they can't read Mens Hearts, or dete& every Villain, who fells his Soul to Hell that he may destroy his Neighbour. Now Spiritual Judges are liable to as many Mistakes and Errors as the Temporal. But it would be very unjuft to cenfure the whole Church for the unwilling Mistakes or Surprises of particular Persons, who never dreamt of being omniscient; or to call every Decretory Sentence which may be pafs'd, Clave Errante, à Perfecution. As for that Allegation, that all thefe Severities are exercis'd upon Men purely for their Confciences; I have fhewn the Frivoloufness and Impertinence of that already: And fince we find upon a right stating of Matters, that Confcience is, indeed, fuch a Principle in Man; as partakes of the Divine Nature of the Giver fo far, as never to mifguide or deceive any Man; it must be impoffible that all thofe feveral Sects and Parties, who differ as much from one another in their Opinions as they do from us,should be in the right, and know, fo as not poffibly to be mistaken, that they

they are in the right. Let them but once agree among themselves, which Party it is among them, which stands for nothing but evident and infallible Truth, and I dare undertake, in the Name of the whole Church of England, and all its Governors, that let their Power be what it will, that particular confcientious Party shall never be perfecuted more.

And now methinks it were no hard Matter ; nor can it favour either of Injuftice or Revenge, to retort the Accufation, and to let the World fee, that this Lawfully eftablifh'd Church of England, which has been fo loudly complain'd of as given fo much to Perfecution, is now and ever has been, from its firft Establishment, the only Perfecuted Body of Chriftians within thefe Kingdoms: That the establish'd Church of England, a Church truly Apoftolical in the Judgment of all her reform'd Neighbours, both in her Do&rine and in her Difcipline; That the who by the Confeffion both of Friends and Enemies, is the Glory of the Reformation, has fuffer'd more by the Hands and Tongues of wicked Men, tho' under the Character of pure and most extraordinary Chriftians, than all the Diffenting Parties put together have ever fuffer'd from Her or Her Friends, tho' all their Complaints of Sufferings were juft and true. If the Holy Ghost informs us rightly, that Ihmael the Son of the Gal.4. 29. Bond Woman perfecuted Ifaac the Son of the Free, and the Child of the Promife, becaufe it is faid that IfhGen. 21. mael mocked him; then we muft affert, that no 10. Society of Men has been more heavily loaded with the Scoffs and Reproaches of ungodly Wretches than the Church of England has been. Thofe of Rome have branded us with Schifm,

Herefy,

Herely, Apoftacy, Rebellion, and whatsoever harsh Things they can beft exprefs their Resentments by: The Diffenters have reproach'd our Clergy, as fo many fcandalous and ignorant Shepherds, Blind Leaders of the Blind, Dumb Dogs, Superftitious, Idolatrous, Anti-Chriftian, Popishly affected; our People as an ungodly, unregenerate Crew, the Children of this World, poor Sheep committed to the Cuftody of ravening Wolves, and whatsoever profound Ignorance and deep rooted Malice can pour out against us. So that we, as the Apofties 1 Cor. 4. of old, have on both Hands been made the OffScouring of the World, and Spectacles to Men and Angels, and a Laughing stock to the World.

9.

Yet certainly, fome of these Characters beftow'd upon the Epifcopal Church of England muft have been mistaken: That Papifts fhould charge us with Herefy, and Diffenters fhould charge us with being Popishly affected, are Accufations fomewhat inconfiftent with one another. And indeed, it has been the Infelicity of our Church, that thofe very Perfons who have blackned and vilify'd one another with all the Rhetorick of Billinfgate, tho' they could agree in nothing else, have yet join'd together to perTrial of fecute our Holy Mother with Tongues fet on Fire K.Charles of Hell; they have confulted together with one Con1. Jent, and have been confederate against us: Yet Pfal.83.5. Providence has fo order'd it ftill, that even Dif

See Nal

fon's Preface to the

fenters themselves, Men who have with all their Little Learning and Interefts oppos'd our eftablifh'd Body; yet when they have employ'd themfelves to write the Lives of fuch Divines as have been of greatest Eminence fince the Reformation, they have been forced,in spite of Prejudice,to enter into their Catalogues many Men, as remar

kable.

kable for their admirable Learning and Piety, as for their Zeal for Epifcopacy and an establish'd Liturgy; and who have defended the Ceremonies appointed to be us'd in our publick religious Services, as ftrenuously as the Juftice and Neceffity of our Reformation from the Errors of Rome: And it will ever be for the Honour of our Church among good Christians, that those very Perfons, who were most active in our first Settlement after the Reformation, were fuch as gave a glorious Teftimony to that Religion which they restored in these Kingdoms, by laying down their Lives under the Rage of cruel / and bloody Men according to the noble Examples of the primitive Saints and Martyrs; and it has been of late the Confeffion of our most formidable Adversaries, That the Clergy of the Church of England as by Law establish'd, were the best Preachers, and the most learned and exemplary Paftors in the Christian World.

But what Excellencies can recommend them" to a malignant Crew, when even the unspotted Purity and Innocence of our bleffed Mafter could not make him appear lefs than a Devil to the Eyes of Hypocritical Pharifees? What could argue a more violent and bitterly perfecuting Spiřit, than the Publication of that Century of Scandalous Minifters, with a large Supplement afterwards, in which Sincerity and Fidelity to lawful Oaths and folemn Vows lawfully impos'd, and an exact Adherence to that holy Religion, fettled in thefe Nations in Oppofition both to Popery and Fanaticifm, were reckon'd Crimes fcandalous enough to expose those guilty of them to all the Fury of the Capital Enemies of Refigion and common Honefty. Again, if the VOL. II.

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Cafe