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Cafe be farther inquired into, it will be found that an immoral or truly fcandalous Life was not the thing, which they intended to bring into Difgrace. For of all Men, thofe who are Rebels against God and against their King, are the most scandalous and wicked; yet fuch were the dearest to them of all others, as being of their own Confraternity: But Loyalty to their Lawful Sovereign, and Conformity to the eftablifh'd Doctrine and Difcipline of the Church of England, were the crying and unpardonable Sins which they could never forgive. Nor could those Sectaries, who have of late excla m'd fo loud against us as Perfecutors, fmite us only with their Tongues: It is not to be forgotten, that their damnable Solemn League and Covenant was forc❜d upon the Loyal Members of the true English Church with more Severity, than Conformity to the Common-Prayers and other Rites and Ceremonies fettled by both Ecclefiaftical and Temporal Laws had ever been upon the Sons of Scruple and Perverfenefs: So that the Contrivers of that deteftable Covenant were Perfecutors indeed fince they us'd all the Devices of Force and Art, to draw Men into Perjury with refpect to thofe Oaths in which they had lawfully engaged themfelves, and then compell'd them to take fuch New Oaths, as were finful to the utmost both in their fubje& Matter, and in the Circumitances with which they were impos'd. So that they punifh'd their Chriftian Brethren only for well-doing, and endeavour'd to drive them upon the moft defperate and notorious Sins: And the bloodyeft of Heathen Perfecutors coulddo no more.

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Thefe Men of tender and scrupulous Confciences, as they mifcall themselves, are willing to forget,(tho' Men of Senfe cannot,) how furioufly they, in their Day, raged against Episcopacy, not only the Perfons, but the very Function it felf; how they pursued their incomparably pious Sovereign, and hunted him as a Partridge on the Mountains; and forbore not their violent Perfecution, till they had barbaroufly and impiously murder'd the Spiritual Head of the Epifcopal Clergy, and the Civil Head of three miferably ruin'd Nations. They are willing to forget, how by an illegal Ordinance of a few Lords and Commons, they decreed, "That if any Perfon May 9! or Perfons thould ufe or caufe to be used the 1644. Book of Common-Prayer" (which all the Clergy of the Kingdom were fworn to ufe in all their publick Adminiftrations and no other) "that then every fuch Person fo offending, fhould મંદ for the firft Offence pay the Sum of Five "Pounds; for the fecond, Ten; and for the "Third fuffer one whole Year's Imprisonment, "without Bail or Main-prize;" Yet, whatever their Pretences were, they would grant no Liberty of Conscience, when they had thus banifh'd Epifcopacy and Liturgy; but they ordain'd farther, "That every Minifter who fhould not August "thenceforth obferve the Directory" (drawn up 23. 1645! by the Westminster-Affembly, in Defiance of all the Laws of God and Man)" according to its true Intent and Meaning, in all the Exercise "of the publick Worship of God, fhould for every Time he fhould fo offend, forfeit and pay Forty Shillings. That every one, who fhould bring it into Contempt, neglect or K 2 oppofe

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Querela Cantabrigi

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Plots of pretended

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oppofe it, who fhould preach, write, print, or caufe to be Publifh'd any thing against the Directory, fhould for every fuch Offence pay fuch a Sum of Money, as upon Trial was thought fit, provided it were not under "Five Pounds, nor above Fifty. Not to mention their Oath of Abjuration, &c. nor to rake any farther in this filthy Puddle.

Only from thefe Things, we cannot but take Liberty to obferve, that, either it is lawful to compel Men to Uniformity in Wickedness, tho' it be unlawful to oblige them to regular Devotion and Piety; or eife thofe, who cry out fo much of Perfecution now, were very great and cruel Perfecutors then; and so had they any Senfe of Truth or Modefty, would hold their Peace fince we know very well, that, He who accufes his Neighbour firft is not therefore innocent himself, tho' he may make the loudeft Exclamations. But fuch has always been the Practice of those, who have deserv'd worst in the Church of God; and they have declaim'd loudest againft Cruelty and Perfecution, and for Lenity, Condefcenfion, and Moderation, who never felt the firft; and who when they have gotten Power into their Hands by juft or unjuft Means, forgot the very Names and Meaning of Moderation, or of Pity and Compaffion. So that infamous Heretick Arius, (when he had fet himfelf openly to oppofe the Eternal Divinity of the Son of God; and the then Bifhops of the Catholick Church, endeavoured to reduce him to that Faith which was once deliver'd to the Saints, by the gentleft Methods ;) tells his fubtle Patrom

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Οτι μεγάλως ἡμᾶς ἐκ

πάντα κάλων κινεῖ καθ' ἡμῶν ὁ Ἐπίσκοπος .

Theodorit. Hiftor.

L. I. Μεμνημένον τῶν θλίψ των αυτό.

Eufebius, Bishop of Nicomedia, that He
but inform him by his Letters, that the Bi-
hop of Alexandria crofs'd and perfecuted
him, and mov'd every Stone against him,
and would have had him expell'd out of
the City as a wicked Man. And in the
Clofe of the fame Letter, He calls
Eufebius,The kind Rememberer of his Af-
flictions. And yet after all this, when by the
Favour of the Emperor Conftantius, a Prince un-
happily tainted with the fame impious Herefy,
the Followers of Arius got the upper Hand of
those who afferted the Catholick and Apofto-
lick Faith; they presently perfecuted them with
more Industry, Cruelty and Malice than even
the Heathens themselves had done before,

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It might easily be obferved too, how, at this very Day, notorious Libertines, Atheifts, and Hypocrites fill our Ears with the Word Moderation; how, tho' they are at prefent free from the Sting of Penal Laws; and tho' all the Pretenders to fcrupulous Confciences have Liberty to ferve God in their own Ways without Disturbance yet they feem, upon the least Intimation of their abufing that Indulgence granted them, to be as apprehenfive of a Perfecution, (tho' the Sons of our holy Mother ftudy only her Prefervation, without infringing that allow'd Liberty) as the Roman Army under Marcellus at the Siege of Syracufe were of fome terrible Mischief from the famous Archimedes, when they faw but a Piece of a Rope or of Timber appear above the City Walls. Our Men of no Religion pretend to be the greateft Bigots for Liberty of Confcience; and they make thofe Seas and Párties querulous and diffatisfy'd, whom Gra

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titude and a peaceable Temper, nay even ordinary human Policy would teach to fit ftill: They are so very tender that they would not have fo much as their occafionally conforming Hypocrites check'd or compell'd to act like Perfons of Sincerity, or to be Christians in carneft when they have devoted their miserable Souls to Hell for the Good Old Caufe. The Apoftolical Church of England, reform'd from the Errors of Rome, and fenced by good Laws against the Extravagancies of Fanaticifm, is what is equally hated by Papifts, Separatifts, and Libertines; her Purity, her Decency and the Rules of Difcipline which the has laid down, are what none of them can bear; the Moderation of thofe of Rome fhew'd it felf wonderful in the fhort but bloody Reign of Queen Mary; the pious Temper and Charity of our Sectaries in the Time of the Great Rebellion; and the good Nature of Libertines, as well as their Diffenting Brethren broke out very lately with so infufferable a Heat and Luftre, as had not fome refreshing and protecting Clouds feasonably interpos'd, our whole Conftitution, both in Church and State had been entirely burnt up. But Thanks be to God and our gracious Sovereign, their Defigns are at prefent put by. We know by woful Experience, that the tender Mercies of the wicked are cruel: God of his infinite Goodnefs preferve us that we may never fall into their Hands! I might eafily carry these Reflections farther; But I have faid enough already to prove that Perfecution is not the Way of the Legally establish'd Church of England: Her Governors as Perfons meerly Ecclefiaftical, and acting only by a Spiritual Authority vefted in them by their Bleffed Mafter,

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