of mercy as Preaching the Gospel is Though they were as maliciously and petulantly affected toward them v. 16. as was possible yet had they nothing to object or except against the whole action But Peter and John made light of their interdict or terrours and told them plainly that they were commanded by God to preach and that in all reason God must be obeyed before them or the greatest Magistrate on earth and that they themselves could not but confess so much And so not knowing what else to say to them being not able to deny the force of their argument they wanted our new wits they added more threatnings if possibly they might terrifie them and so dismiss'd them having nothing to lay to their charge And if Mr. Middlesly in Lancashire had brought out the many thousand people converted by him which Dr. Ames mentioneth had it not been a silencing argument against his silencer as well as the Cure of a lame man here was And on 1 Thess. 2. 15 16. It being unreasonable that they which have cast off obedience to God should persecute all men that come to tell them of their duty And this generally is the ground of their quarrel to us that in spight of their prohibition we preach to the Gentiles use means that they might repent of their Idolatries c. By which and the former things the Jews do so fill up the measure of their sins that the wrath of God to the utter destruction of them is now come out upon them already denounced and within a very little while most certain to overtake them I apply it no further than to tell you that if you will still chuse our Suffering as more desirable than our Preaching the Gospel of Christ your arms will sooner be tired with striking than faithful Ministers will be tired with Sufferings and you will be sooner a weary of smiting with the Sword than they will be with preaching the Word under all your pressures And when your nets have taken only the Greater fishes the lesser fry will all get through and become more numerous and in time as Great as those you took and will make the vanity of your trade apparent and make you one day wish that you had left such nets and with Peter and them have been fishers of men to win them rather than to destroy them 26. Obj. But Castellanus his objection against Bicot elsewhere cited out of Scaliger is their greatest strength who said Aristotle was against Monarchy Here they may borrow that by deceiving which by disputing they could not prove The Counterminor and many others like minded endeavour to make Rulers and people believe that it is Rebellion that is in our hearts and that it is only the renouncing of a Rebellious Covenant that we stick at and the Renouncing of Subjects taking arms against the King and any commissioned by him and therefore the silencing of such as cherish the principles of Rebellion is necessary And they think that this Oven gapeth so wide and is so hot that here they may boldly challenge our answer Ans. If men have any remnants of justice and modesty left they shall be constrained to confess that my Answer to this Objection is satisfactory I. I take that man to be an enemy to God to Kings and to Mankind who will maintain that there is any such thing in the world as a lawful unlimited Monarchy or humane Power and therefore wonder that Bishop Morley did put the denial of this among the accused passages of my Political Aphorisms where I expresly speak of Gods Limitation 1. He is an enemy to God that asserteth this because he thereby denieth God to be the Universal Soveraign who hath made Laws for all Kings who are all his Subjects and as they are finite receive but a finite power from him It is Atheism to deny Gods Soveraignty Hath not God forbidden Kings Idolatry Perjury Blasphemy Murder Tyranny Oppression Adultery c 2. He is an enemy to Kings who will render them odious to mankind by drawing such a picture or description of them as to say A King is one that is absolutely unlimited in his power and therefore may deny or blaspheme God and may destroy City and Kingdom and kill all the innocent people when he please 3. He is an enemy to Mankind that would bring them into such slavery under such a Monster and tell them If your King send but a few Commissioned executioners to command all your Heads and murder Senate City and Countrey Parents and Children and burn up all your dwellings neither the Law of Nature or of the Land will allow you to defend your selves against them Who will defend such a monster in War against his enemies when no enemy can bring them into greater slavery II. Almost all mankind on earth agree that all humane Power is limited and that Propriety is in order of nature antecedent to regiment which is to order the use of propriety Men are born with a propriety in their lives members and health And Nature giveth them a propriety in their Children and Contract in their Wives and natural Industry in the fruit of their labours And what am I that I should deny all this and seem wiser in Atheism and Inhumanity than almost all the world III. It is a known thing that Tyranny is the great hinderer of the Preaching of the Gospel and so of the Conversion and saving of the World Why is not the saving truth of God preached among Heathens and Mahometans who are five sixth parts of mankind and among Papists who are the fourth part of the other sixth but because Tyrants will not suffer it And no friend of God Christ or man then should set up or plead for such an evil IV. To stop the mouth of Malice it self I here truly adjoyn the profession of my judgment about all this Controversie and Accusation I do Assent and Consent to all that is said for the Power of Kings and the obedience and patience of Subjects in all the Word of God in all the Confessions which ever I yet saw of any Christian Church Reformed Greek or Papist except what exalteth the Pope his Councils and Agents or which is the ordinary Consent of Politicians Lawyers or Divines or which is established by the Constitution of this Kingdom I stand to the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy I hold it unlawful for any of his Subjects to take arms against the King that is against his Person Authority Dignity Rights or Laws or against any of his Courts Officers or Soldiers Lawfully Commissioned by him yea or if they be unlawfully Commissioned except when Gods Law of Nature or the Kings own Law or contrary Commission bind me to it And I will never endeavour to alter the Constituted Monarchical Government of this Kingdom Nor will I endeavour to reform the Church or its Government by Rebellion Sedition or any other unlawful means And I believe that no other Oath League
or Covenant doth disoblige me from any of this aforesaid nor warranteth me to disobey any lawful Command of the King or any of my Governours nor to do any unlawful thing And I renounce all Doctrines and Practices contrary to this profession Especially of those Popes and Councils of Bishops who have decreed the Excommunicating and Deposing of Kings or other Temporal Lords and the Absolving their Subjects from their Oaths and Fidelity and the rest of the Papal Usurpations and Church-Tyranny against the Rights of Princes and Christian people though judged Hereticks by Pope Prelates or Priests If this be not enough see the 2d Plea for Peace and my form of professed Loyalty in my book called The true and only way of the Concord of all Christian Churches V. And because they still cant over the mention of the late miserable Wars as if they hated the Act of Oblivion and Peace I add that malice may have no more to say that hath the shew of reason Silence and cast out all that ever had any hand in those Wars except the Conformists and no more and we will give you a thousand thanks and acquiesce in it as unexpected justice And is not all this yet enough VI. As to the particular reasons that we have against Subscribing Universally and unlimitedly without any exposition given by the Law-makers that it is unlawful to take arms against any Commissioned by the King and as referring to on any pretence whatsoever it belongeth to another discourse to render them which giveth the reasons of our Nonconformity It would be here unseasonable and they are many and great 27 Obj. But good words must not satisfie while the remembrance of your Rebellious practises yet remaineth Ans. 1. I have elsewhere told the strangers and young men that know it not that it was between two Parties of Episcopal Conformists that the War began 2. Is it not Words that you require as satisfactions in your Subscriptions and Oaths What more than Words is it that you would have 3. Are not the Laws in Power and Judges to execute them against any that shall speak or do disloyally What would you have more than Words and that mens Estates and Lives be answerable for their offences Obj. But why will you not then subscribe and swear in the words of the Law but in your own Ans. To give here the reasons of that is the unseasonable digression before disclaimed You may as well here call us to dispute over all our differences Obj. But here I am charged as an impudent falsifier of History for saying that the War began between two Parties of Episcopal Conformity which maketh me pity the World in point of History when the publick affairs of a Kingdom so openly managed shall be in such a manner controverted in the very age when they were done Divers Lords are yet living who were interessed in these matters and it is unpleasing to give men the Catalogue of great mens Names in a matter which His Majesty hath committed to oblivion But a breviate of all the necessary proof I shall draw up in a History by it self The Accusation 28 being made publickly by my old friend Dr. Thomas Good in his book called Dubitantius Firmianus I will annex a Letter which I wrote in answer to it ACCUS 28. To my Reverend and Worthy Friend Dr. Thomas Good Master of Baliol-Colledge in Oxford Reverend and Worthy Sir IT is now about a Month since I received a Letter from you for the furthering of a good work which I sent to Mr. Foley by his Son Mr. Paul Foley not having opportunity my self to see him I have stayed so long for an answer not hearing yet from him that I think it not meet any longer to forbear to acquaint you with the reasons of the delay He liveth quite at the other end of London from me and my weakness and business keep me much within doors and it 's hard to find him within except at those hours when I am constrained to be in bed But I have reason to conjecture that his answer will be 1. That the rich men whose judgments are for Conformity are far more numerous than those who are of another mind and therefore fitter to promote that work And there are so very few that do any thing for the ejected Ministers that some of them live on brown bread and water c. which hindereth those Gentlemen from other kind of charitable work 2. And I must crave your patience being confident by your ancient kindness of your friendly interpretation which I tell you that this day I heard one say We can expect that Dr. Good do make his Scholars no better than himself And what reason have we to maintain and breed up men to use us as he hath done in his late Treatise I got the Book and was glad to find much good and several moderate passages in it and I knew you so well as that I could not but expect moderation but when I perused the passages referred to I could say no more for them but that I would write to you to hear your answer about them For I confess they surprized me though at the same time I received many new Books of a sanguine complection from other hands without any admiration I. The first passage referred to was pag. 104. Which are confessedly things indifferent This is spoken indefinitely of the Presbyterians Where have I lived I know not one Presbyterian living that divideth from you for any thing which he confesseth indifferent I crave your answer containg the proof of this at least to name some one of them that we may reprove him We take Conformity to be so far from indifferent that we forbear to tell the world the greatness of the sin which we think to be in it lest men cannot bear it and lest it should disaffect the people to the Ministry of the Conformists II. Your p. 156. I pass by The main matter is p. 160 161. that though All the Nonconformists were not in actual arms against the King nor did they all as natural agents cut off his Head but morally that is very sinfully and wickedly they had their hands stained with that royal blood for whosoever did abet these sons of Belial in their rebellions treasons murders of their King and fellow subjects either by consenting to their villanies praying for their prosperity praising God for their successes c. The Charge is high If it be not true 1. They are almost as deeply wrong'd as you can wrong them 2. Our Rulers are wronged by being so provoked to abhor them silence and destroy them 3. Posterity is wronged by a misinforming History I. You are too old to be ignorant that it was an Episcopal and Erastian Parliament of Conformists that first took up these arms in England against the King The Members yet living profess that at that time they knew but one Presbyterian in the House of Commons Interest forced or
of our Lord and of me his prisoner but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the Gospel Ver. 11 12 13. Whereunto I am appointed a Preacher and an Apostle and a Teacher of the Gentiles for the which cause I also suffer these things Nevertheless I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed c. Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me c. That good thing which was committed to thee keep c. How keep not secretly only as a Christian but openly as a Preacher though thou suffer for it as I do So must Titus Chap. 2. 15. These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority And such another charge have the Elders or Bishops from the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 5. 1 2 3. Qu. But is this also the case of those that succeeded them Ans. Yes they ordained others into the same office under the same Law of constancy and fidelity 2 Tim. 2. 2. The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also Though still the Rulers were against it And 2 Tim. 2. 24 25. The servant of the Lord must be apt to teach And what an example of Preaching publickly and from house to house night and day doth Paul give to all the Ephesian Elders Act. 20. even when Rulers were against it And again I say the practise and martyrdom of many and the writings of others do assure us that this was the judgment of Clemens Romanus Ignatius Polycarp Cyprian Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus Origen and generally of all the ancient Church who were called as we are by men and yet Preached to the death against the will of the Magistrate And as Paul himself desireth prayers for him that utterance may be given him that he might open his mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel for which he was an Ambassador in bonds that therein he might speak boldly as he ought to speak Eph. 6. 19 20. So he oft commendeth his fellow-labourers that accordingly served with him in the Gospel though they were no Apostles Phil. 2. 22. 4. 3. Rom. 16 c. And as he spake not as a man-pleaser 1 Thes. 2. 4. Gal. 1. 7 8. and as Christ would have his word preacht as on the house top Mat. 10. 7 8. so this is done as a duty of fidelity in Ministers as such and therefore Christ adjoineth with this charge such words as these that shew the Rulers Prohibition Vers. 16 17 c. 28. Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves but beware of men for they will deliver you up to the Councils and they will scourge you in their Synagogues and ye shall be brought before Governours and Kings for my sake for a testimony against them and the Gentiles c. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name sake c. But when they persecute you in this city flee ye into another The disciple is not above his master c. Fear them not therefore c. Fear them not which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him c. These are the next words to the command VVhat I tell you in darkness that speak ye in the light and what ye hear in the ear that preach ye on the house-top Luk. 9. 62. No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God Both Christians as such and Ministers as such must absolutely give up themselves to Christ and not look back for fear of man whatever it cost them to proceed 3. Mat. 9. 38. Luk. 10. 2. Christ commandeth Pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers into his harvest viz. because the harvest is great and the labourers few And this is every Christians daily prayer when we say Thy Kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven If it be our duty daily to pray God to proportion the number of Labourers to the greatness and necessity of the work and that his Kingdom and the obedience of his will may be by his appointed means promoted on earth then it is our duty to do as we pray and not play the hypocrites with God as St. James his reproved hypocrites did as to the relieving of the poor that said Go and be clothed and warmed but gave them neither clothes nor food For a called Minister to pray Lord send out more Preachers and such as will promote thy Kingdom and perswade the world to do thy will while he forbeareth to Preach himself because that man forbiddeth him unwarrantably this is as very a mocking of God as it would be by the rich and covetous to pray Lord send some to relieve the poor when he giveth them nothing of his abundance 4. The Reasons of all these Commands for constant Preaching are moral and perpetual for the work of the Ministry is to open mens eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive remission of sins and inheritance among the sanctified c. Act. 26. 17 18. But this work for these ends belongs to us to this day and therefore these Reasons intimate that the like constancy is our duty as was theirs But before I proceed to our further Reasons it will here be expected that I say somewhat more to the grand Objection viz. These that you talk of were Infidel or Heathen Rulers and will you compare our with them Or doth it follow that Christian Rulers may not silence Ministers because they might not Answ. 1. No far be it from me to compare our Governours with such We thankfully acknowledg it to be the Glory of England that it hath a King and Magistracy that owneth Christianity yea more that when the whole world hath but three Protestant Kings that I know of we have not only one of the three but the chiefest who keepeth Religion in greater purity than the rest But that which I have all this while been proving is but this That where and when the Gospel is necessary to be preached true Ministers of Christ may not lawfully forbear because the Rulers do forbid them though they be not Apostles but called by the way of man 2. A Christian Magistrate doth no more Ordain and Degrade than other Rulers but he is the Governour of the Ministers to keep them from neglecting or abusing their Callings and he may drive those out of his Dominions that will not otherwise be kept from subverting faith or godliness or that are proved truly to do more hurt than good in the Land And therefore if the King restrain or banish those that are truly the plagues and destroyers of the Land or of Religion or Loyalty he shall never be blamed for it by us Or if
s no wonder if one sin be a temptation to another or by actions sinful only in this And that scandal is 1. When the action otherwise lawful is purposely intended as a snare or temptation 2. When it is not so intended but hath a strong natural tendency in it self to tempt and being unnecessary is the effect of great inadvertency carelesness rashness and want of love to others souls But scandal taken and not given that is not culpably given is when it is either from a necessary duty of ours or from a thing so harmless as that there is no probability that it should be a temptation to any but those that go out of their way to seek for matter of temptation to themselves by an extraordinary perverseness We think it no false distinguishing to say that it is one thing to lay a trap or dig a pit purposely for men to fall in and another thing rashly and carelesly to dig a pit and cover it to catch wild beasts in in the common high-way or very near it and another thing to dig a pit quite out of all ordinary passage of men where yet a drunkard or one that will seek a pit to leap into may possibly find it Scandalum datum is that which charity and prudence bind men carefully to prevent and Scandalum acceptum is that which ariseth not from any omission of the duty of him from whom it is taken But more of this anon We have told you our Religion but we are not now disputing against yours If the naming of such opinions be confutation enough the owners have confuted them themselves If it be not let them pass Our work at present is only Apology though we are tainted too with the disputing disease And so much for our Reasons for Preaching Christs Gospel against mens will The sum of all is this It is an indispensible duty lying on us as men and Ministers by the obligation of Gods Law of Charity and as Ministers also by the obligation of our own Vows or self-dedication at our Ordination to do our best in the exercise of all our talents Humane Christian and Ministerial to seek to save the peoples souls and so to preach or teach and exhort them in the manner which most conduceth thereto when and where our teaching is truly and evidently necessary But now in the Kings Dominions our teaching is to these ends truly and evidently necessary therefore it is our duty so to teach III. BEcause many of your contrary Reasonings are already answered before I will here annex the rest that they may not have the disadvantage of too great a distance 1. Obj. Your own preciseness and censoriousness maketh the common people seem mostly ignorant and prophane to you and then you pretend a necessity of your Preaching when you do but feign it by setting your selves more above your neighbours than there is cause Ans. 1. I confess that many of the Separatists are truly guilty of what you here object For when they have Unchurched whole Parishes of men whom they know not nor ever heard speak for themselves we that have come after them have found abundance of the people much better than they imagined But one error or extream will not justifie another Remember that we are not now talking of mens qualifications for visible Communion in the Church but of their necessity of being taught And we censure none beyond such cogent evidence as is not in our power now to be ignorant of I beseech you deal openly with us and answer us these few Questions and all the matter will be ended 1. If men do not know who Christ is or what he came into the world for nor what he hath done for us nor what the Holy Ghost is nor what he is to do for us nor what a Saviour or a Sanctifier is nor what is the plain sense of most Articles of the Creed or Petitions in the Lords-prayer have such men need of Teaching to save their souls or not 2. If men follow the world eagerly all the week and talk of it on the Lords day and love not to hear any talk of another world or how they must be pardoned and saved but swear and curse and rail and many of them are drunkards gluttons or fornicators and if they never teach their children or families or pray with them any more than Infidels and shew no Religion but going to Church or perhaps sometimes say the Lords-prayer and the Creed without understanding and if we advise them to prepare for death and the life to come and tell them the need of a Saviour a Sanctifier and of faith repentance and a holy life they tell us that they will trust God with their souls and not trouble their heads with things so high they shall speed as well as their neighbours Have these mens souls any need of teaching 3. If any of the people so much love their drunkenness and fornication and other gross sins that they hate the Minister that seriously though gently reproveth them and like Cain would see their brothers blood if he offer God a more acceptable sacrifice than themselves or slander and hate the most conformable Minister that is but strict and seriously Religious and is talking against them on all occasins have these mens souls any need of exhortation or not 4. If many of the people be weak in judgment that mean well and have only a glimmering confused knowledge of most of the greatest matters of Religion and though we hope well of their sincerity they have abundance of mistakes and sad miscarriages in their lives and are inclined to most of the real errors which the Debate maker reciteth and in danger of being carried into any opinions which are offered by men who by nearness or plausibility of perswasion come to them with any great advantage yea and are like to be troublers of the Church have these men need to be taught or not Let us but be once agreed that the true belief consent and performance of our Baptismal Covenant is necessary ordinarily to mens salvation and that without faith it is impossible to please God and that except a man be regenerate of the Spirit as well as of water and except he be converted and become as a little child he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and that he that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his and that they that are in the flesh cannot please God because the carnal mind is enmity against him and that without holiness none shall see the Lord and that if the Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost and how can they hear without a Preacher c. Agree but to this or any of this and sure our case is fair for a good issue Mark 16. 16. Heb. 11. 6. Joh. 3. 3 5 6. Mat. 18. 3. Rom. 8. 6 7 8 9 13. Heb. 12. 14. 1 Cor. 4. 3. Rom. 10 c. 5. And for the matter
to all men forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved to fill up their sins alway for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost Acts 4. 2 c. 3. Experience assureth us that from the beginning of the Church to this present day Christ never gave too many able faithful Ministers to his Church Supernumeraries of such were never its disease nor the amputation of them its cure There is still need of the Lords-prayer Thy Kingdom come And Pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers c. That man is but a Christian or a Pastor in jest and Image and not in earnest and reality who thinketh that the Pastors now allowed are so sufficient for the great employment of the Ministry that more are but supernumerary and the rest may be spared without any detriment to the souls of men Even in the Apostles age of Miraculous gifts Dr. Hammond thinketh the Pastors were so scarce that every Episcopal Church had no more than one Bishop with some Deacons without ever a Subject-Presbyter And that there was de facto none of the Order of subject-Presbyters in Scripture-times And so think all the Presbyterians too And it is a notorious truth that afterwards the Presbyters were so low in abilities that publick preaching in the Church was mostly used by the Bishops only And many Countries have lost the Gospel for want of Preachers And wherever ignorance and prophaneness have broken in upon the Church as the Greeks Abassines Armenians Moscovites Papists and too many Protestant Churches it hath commonly been by the decay of able godly faithful Pastors And if one City or Parish of ten thousand have had too many their near neighbours have so much wanted them that they could not be esteemed supernumerary And in England there are few Parishes which need not helps even where the ablest men are placed much more where Is it seasonable then or doth it answer the Will or Providence of to call in so many when the Church hath always had too few 4. The punishment which you inflict upon the Ministers doth fall a thousand times more heavily on the souls of the innocent people who without being accused or speaking for themselves in a Legal trial have so great a penalty inflicted on them as none but a believer that judgeth of things in reference to Eternity is able to estimate a right Alas to the Preacher the suffering is small in comparison of the peoples What if they live poorly what if they want house or clothes or bread How small a matter is that in comparison of the want of knowledg and faith of grace and salvation I confess their sufferings will cost them dear that are the true cause when Christ condemns those that do not relieve them But to themselves it is no such dreadful business Nay if they were but discharged in conscience from the Ministerial Office most of them might live in much more peace and plenty in the world There are many other Callings to betake themselves to in which they might live quietly and not be as the Hare before the Hunters pursued from place to place with cryes as if they that will imitate Paul in labours must bear also his reproach as pestilent fellows and movers of sedition among the people that do contrary to the decrees of Cesar and turn the world upside down Yea many are already turned Physicians and they have better words and kinder usage But every man that hath the eyes of a Christian in his head and seeth what the people of England VVales and Ireland are for members and for quality and seeth and heareth also what Ministers for number and quality do instruct them doth know as certainly that many hundred thousand souls do wofully need more Ministerial helps as he knoweth that five hundred Scholars do need more than one School-master or five hundred sick men need more than one Physician But O what a plague is it to the Church and World to have Ministers who when they read of the necessity of knowledg holiness and salvation do neither believe Christ nor themselves Argue not the people into such hard thoughts of you as if this were your case by perswading them that it is no matter whether their souls have any more Ministerial helps than now is given them Either you believe that where the Gospel is hid it is hid to them that are lost and that the cure of gross ignorance hard-heartedness unbelief and sensuality are of necessity to salvation or not If not deal openly and silence both your selves and us If yea then either you know how these maladies abound in the people and how much labour the cure doth usually cost or not If not then take not on you to be Pastors or English men or competent Judges of any of the peoples cases and concernments but confess that these are matters that you are strangers to But if you do know this then I need to say no more to you but to desire you to fuppose that soul-necessities are not the less because men complain not of them but greatest where there is the greatest insensibility and contentedness with them The Turks and Heathens cry not out for the help of Christian Pastors The worldling drunkard and fornicator is most miserable that would have no reproof or help Suppose therefore that their necessities are instead of cryes and that you hear them calling to you for help O pity the many hundred thousand souls that are drowned in ignorance unbelief insensibility worldliness and sensuality that are utter strangers to that life of faith and love and holiness without which none can please or see God and must quickly be converted and made new creatures or they are lost for ever Or suppose that their necessities being their complaints you heard them expostulating with you for their souls O take not from us that means which God by Nature and by his Institution hath made so needful to our salvation Alas our ignorance and deadness and worldly-mindedness and fleshly affections are too hardly cured by all the best means and diligence that can be used what shall we do then if you deprive us of that which we have enjoyed Alas say not that the reading of the Scriptures and a few lifeless notes of a Sermon will serve turn We confess that it should do so if our disease were so light as to need no more the thing it self is good and every word of God is precious but it is the nature of our disease to be read asleep and hardned in our sins by the customary hearing of a few good words in a sleepy saying tone It is the skilful choice of pertinent Truths convincingly and clearly uttered and closely applied with life and seriousness that our case requireth We confess that if a School-boy or a raw ignorant youth from the University did but read a chapter or say over a less pertinent cento of good words we should be moved