our Laws the Prerogative of our Prince and the true Liberty of the Subject We could address no other Person we could gain Relief from no other Place the King alone could grant our Request who might have been sensible of the Desires of his faithful People had not evil Men slandered us and mis-represented our Design but to proceed As many of those Gentlemen who disparage the Conduct of our Zeal challenge us for an Insult upon the Laws so others scruple not with open Mouth to tell us that we should not on any Account have petitioned for Bishops that Title being as odious to them as was Hannibals Name to the Roman Matrons In this Hatred they are fix'd by the prevailing Authority of Education and Prejudice and their spiritual Directors carefully improve those Maxims with which their early Judgments were possest Among them Lewis du Moulin hath furnished his Disciples with Invectives against the sacred Function out of the Writings of a learned Man whom he calls one of the sincerest Persons in the World though he confesses if Mr. Baxter be in an Error he is the greatest of Lyars * Moulin's short and true Account of the Advances of the Church of England towards Rome P. 64. c. The Episcopacy of the Church of England saith he is absolutely contrary to the Holy Scriptures and the Practice of the Primitive Church It is not compatible with the Peace of the Church nor with the Civil State It is the Cause of all the Sects all the Heresies and of all the Schisms and Divisions which have rent and torn and infected England for above this hundred Years banishing all likelihood of Reformation in Religion and good Manners That it shuts the Door against the Entrance of the Doctrine and Discipline of Jesus Christ letting loose the Reins to all Debaucheries Intemperance Luxury and Idleness making the Pastors lazy in the Discharge of their Ministry fomenting Ignorance hatred of Piety Plurality of Benefices That it is a Government that divests the Pastors of Parishes of the Authority to exercise the Discipline of Jesus Christ to invest the secular Persons with it breaking the Union of the Churches of England with those beyond Sea and gratifying the Enemy of our Salvation and Persons of a sensual and depraved Life This is the Language of the Man whom our Author calls the sincere and he does well deserve that Character for he hath delivered the true Idaea of his Thoughts to us And indeed if Episcopacy were of such a monstrous and Antichristian Composure and did it carry such a Wolf in its Back as this old Angry Divine would perswade us an Address in Favor of the Bishops had entituled us to a severe Chastisement I need not intermeddle with the Merit of those Allegations with which that luxurious Writer bespatters the Order and Succession of our Church but I beg leave to follow Monsieur Moulin himself in the full Stretch of his own Argument and shame his Party by giving them a Repetition of his Words The Reader therefore is to be informed that in the Judgment of this unerring * Idem p. 63. 65. Rabbin Dr. Tillotson is a Reverend and Learned Man that Dr. Floyd and the Canon of the Chapiter of which Dr. Tillotson is the Dean have done good Service by their Labours against Popery That all the Three are every where extreamly valued and honored by the best Judges and the holiest Men and that they live in the high Reputation of being eminently Learned and pious These are the Expressions of the double fac'd Janus in one place of his Book but in the reverse Page he seems much afflicted that these Doctors have vindicated our Bishops and the Frame of our Discipline and for this Reason he compares them to those who made Panegirics on the Bloody Busiris the Tyrant Nero and the Tertian Ague That it is with these three great Divines as with Anselm Ives and John of Salisbury who by the Reputation of their extraordinary piety have established more strongly the Perpetuity of the Popes Empire then all the Diabolical Instruments of Gregory the Seventh Innocentius the Third and Fourth and Boniface the Eighth The Monsieur is justly allowed his Pretence to an Insight in the Affairs of Church History for he managed his Conduct by the Authority of a great and leading Example treating our Doctors in the same Stile with which the primitive Christians were entertain'd at Rome Caius Scius as the old learned Apologist Writes was esteem'd as good and as rightous a Man as any in that City but he was therefore declared wicked by a pubilc Out-cry because he professed Christianity And by the same Analogy Dr. Tillotson and his Reverend Brethren after they had been acknowledged to be Angels of light were soon transform'd into Instruments of darkness because they asserted the Power and Jurisdiction of Christian Prelacy and if our Doctors are thus sentenced by the ill natur'd Minister what mercy can our Bishops expect from the Tongues of his violent Party Our Diocesan hath been often allowed to have done glorious Exploits and his expence of Labor and Gold in the ransom of Christian Slaves and his hazards in the Rescue of others from Turkish Tyranny speak him a great Man but yet he is no Christian in the New Catalogue because he is a Bishop Our holy Primate and this his loudest Enemies confess is a Person of stupendious Gifts and admirable Piety and is most Serpahic in the Austerities of his Life but he is therefore thought unworthy his Majesty's Grace because he is a Bishop In this Current and Chanel doth Lewis du Moulin lead us and it is no wonder his Votaries will not subscribe to a Pardon for our Prelates who were the times answerable to their Wishes would blot out the Names of their Persons and pull down the Establishment of their Order I have often wished that those who assume the name of Protestants and by their great English Patriarch are Stiled the Sober and Self-denying Men had not in their Practice maintained what he the sincere Person has deliver'd in Thesi It would have conduced much to their Reputation had they been led by the sweet and Angelic Spirit of Calvin to which though they do in a large Sense pretend yet they never studied that part of Christian Imitation I am sure they have lost their Credit among all good Protestants nor has their Conduct been pleasing to the Lutheran Hugonot and the Evangelical Churches for when our Dissenting Brethren enjoy'd a full swinge of Liberty by the Toleration in the late Reign many of them could not bare the equal prosperity of our Church and of our Bishops but rather then not ruin both they could for once allow Satan their help to raise the Superstructure of his Kingdom I am unwilling to enlarge on what I before purposely avoided or at least but lightly touched but their unpardonable iniquity cannot be concealed in this place I suppose they remember the
A Modest APOLOGY For the SUSPENDED BISHOPS WITH A Brief Vindication of the Address which was signed in their Favour by the Grand-Jury of the County of GLOUCESTER At the last Lent Assizes By a Gentleman of the said Grand-Jury LONDON Printed by T. B. and are to be Sold by Randolph Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1690. To the Right Worshipful WILLIAM DENNIS Esq The High Sheriff of the County of GLOUCESTER Honored Sir I Here present you with a brief Vindication of Truth and Charity from the Insolent Spight of a restless Faction For there are certain busie Gentlemen in this Country that pass a rough Complement on me and others who by your Precept attended their Majesty's Service at Gloucester Nor are they content to traduce and bespatter us but they seem to joyn you in our Conspiracy Their common Language and how are they tickled with the Music of the Expression rans in the Cadence that our Master High Sheriff's Under Sheriff's Popish Jury signed a Petition against Law Certainly they will storm more violently against this new Attempt nor will the ensuing Discourse which contains a modest Apology for the distressed Bishops be grateful to them who laboured so industriously to stifle our last Paper It would raise a strange Agony of Mind in any moderate Person to consider the sordid Malice of our Adversaries and the impudent Calumnies with which they have vented their Spleen against us For they are become such topping Proficients in the Devils School that they can adapt a Story be it never so immodest to the various Circumstances of Time and Place By the Industry of this black Art they drew a dark Veil upon our Persons and our Designs and gave us a Character which they knew would disappoint the Success of of our Hopes For the Clergy of Norfolk having in most submissive Terms made their Application to the Court in Favor of their Bishop it was the Fortune of our Address to be preferred by us at the same juncture and no sooner were Copies of it convey'd to London but certain Zealots took the sudden Alarm and gave out according to their usual and profane Practice of downright Lying that the conforming Ministers of Gloucester-shire had signed a seditious Petition derogatory to the Proceedings of his Majesty and of the two Honorable Houses of Parliament and that this was performed by the joynt Combination of the Clergy of the two Diocesses The absurd Story gained such Credit and Vogue in the Town that many honest Gentlemen were so far impos'd on as to be drawn into the Belief of it And a Reverend and good prelate who was a famous Sufferer in the last Reign being sensibly afflicted with the Surprize dispatch'd a serious Letter to our Diocesan in which he expostulated with him on this Occasion The Affair also was so foully misrepresented at Court that our Friends there thought it an unreasonable Attempt to promote either of the two Addresses by which Means they both remain buried in a Suspension with the Bishops I think my self obliged in Answer to the unjust Aspersion to affirm that no Clergy-man had the View of our Address before it was published at the Assizes much less could it be an Address of theirs And I must also assure you that in framing the ensuing Discourse I received no Instructions or Assistance from them but my own Meditations which I acknowledge without any Mans Opinion in the Case are attended with great Poverty of Thought suggested to me the innocent Design and Management of the Trifle and by its mean Composure you will quickly perceive that I am no Plagiary Thus submitting the Justice of our present Cause to our good God with whom there is no Respect of Persons and at whose Tribunal all intriguing Lyars will be sentensed to a dreadful Flame that will eternally scorch their profane Lips I advise our Leasing-Makers to a timely Repentance and bid them adieu till they provoke us with new Indignities I am Honored Sir Your Humble Servant and Faithful Neighbour A Modest APOLOGY For the SUSPENDED BISHOPS c. AS in the Roman History we may observe that the Flattery of the People by which the Enormities of the Caesar's were professedly indulg'd gave an infallible proof to the distempers of a sick and languishing Government so if we reflect with just resentment on the like gross Vanity which prevailed for some Years in this Nation and derived encouragement from the Court which ought to have been the School of more noble Exploits we must acknowledge that the same slavish extravagance so fondly entertain'd among us ushered in the fatal degeneracy and corruption of our State But among all the fawning Addresses which were Dedicated to our Kings we may esteem none more pernicious then those bold Advances of Officious Ceremony which in Favour of most unjustifiable Proceedings struck at the Foundation of our Laws and led in a direct tendency to their Subversion For thô the pretences did bare a formal and sanctify'd Dress and were armed with the Phylactery of Pharisaical right'ousness yet did the Design carry with it a dreadful iniquity The intrigue was begun in Hell propos'd at Doway Licens'd at Rome confirm'd at Paris and was ready to have deliver'd it's effects in London and our other City's had not the Providence of God raised up to us a Deliverer It is well known who in that Age of Tryal were the Betrayers of their Country and who in complyance with a wretched Declaration which seem'd to Petition the People for Addresses were drawn into a most destructive Adventure I shall not therefore at present Pry into the full Mystery of that iniquity it being in part discover'd in another place of this discourse but leave it to the scourge of Historians and to other faithful Animadverters However I must not omit since it falls within the compass of our immediate review a Comical Scene I formerly beheld at Gloucester where that Skeleton of Law Judge Allebon perform'd a meritorious part and propos'd in open Court his Terms of Accommodation The Holy Man told us That our two Churches were agreed in the grand-point of the real Presence That the invocation of Saints was enjoyned by the fifth Comandment That 't was inconsistent with Christian Charity to suffer Penal-Laws and a distinguishing Test to render the Religion of a gracious Prince uneasy to the Subject and that a general Toleration would advance the dignity and Port of our Nation He drew parallel Lines from the prosperity of the Hans-Towns and from the flourishing State of the Low-Countries and I expected to have heard him sum up his Sermon with a remark on the Blessed Effects which the uninterrupted course of Liberty produc'd in Sodom Laish and Gibeah of Benjamin The kind and tender-hearted Grand-Jury among whom were herded Saints of many different Communions were soon enflamed with a Sympathizing Zeal and could not but gratify the little Scarlet Image with a Paper first convey'd in a Whisper to them from a Factor of
the Court in which they dispatch'd their public thanks to his Majesty for his Declaration with the promise if I understood their meaning to return I should have said to elect since the other expression contains the Office of their Popish Sheriff such Representatives for Parliament who might answer the Kings demands or who in plain English would break down all the Fences which kept out Superstition and all the other invasions upon our just Libertys This was an Address with a witness and highly magnify'd by many who cannot be reconcil'd to the sincerity and moderation of our last Inquest I cannot but admire the Wisdom and renowned bravery of our undaunted Heroes the Bishops who in the midst of the impetuous storms of those licencious Times oppos'd the Buckler of our Laws to the new and unexampl'd enterprize They did maintain not without the concurrence of an Almighty Power our Religion and Civil Rights against the Stratagems and brisk Assaults of daring Enemies Nor did they faintly repel the Force but when they received the express Command of a Potent King to be as base as other Men they remonstrated in masculin Terms and reply'd to their Sovereign with such Christian courage as confounded the Papal valor and silenc'd their Adversarys and those who were then jealous of the prosperity of their Mitre I would not be suppos'd to instruct or remind any Persons of the just Debt and Duty of gratitude if I affirm that the calamity and rigorous sufferings which befel our Church and those good Fathers after their inimitable conduct proved the Great Engine and one of the most profitable pretences which the Authors of the late Revolution used in promoting their Enterprize The Separatists were then indulg'd with Freedom this being the successful Return to their temporizing Addresses The Apostles of Muncer Nayler and Muggleton enjoy'd the Priviledge of a Sanctuary the other Dissenters whom we own though against their Wills to be our Brethren were lull'd into a fatal security All the Factions as they Danced to the Music of the Court and gratify'd Father Petre in the current of his desires so they could not be supposed thus triumphing in the Event and Luxury of their wishes to afford any reasonable matter for the Ground-work of our wonderful Deliverance His present Majesty had another Path to which a Divine Power led him and his Eyes were Arrested with more serious and pressing Objects 'T was then that the Prince like another Constantine declar'd he would undertake the Patronage of our Church and made it's Defence one of the most Honorable and cogent Reasons for his descent into England He saw Seven Bishops and how renowned is that Mystical Number condemn'd like their Fore-fathers in Dioclesian's Rage to a dreadful confinement among Murtherers and Traytors He saw a suspension past on another Bishop and the like Thunder threatned against the rest of his Brethren He saw the Divines of both Provinces attacqu'd by the Tyrannical decrees of an Arbitrary Commission and Successors appointed to them out of the Store-house of St. James's He saw the Franchises of the Church dissolved and the Schools of the Prophets invaded by seminary Priests By this manifest Injustice and deliberate Sacriledge so effrontedly carryed on against the loud Oracle of our Laws the Charter of our Religion and the common Principles of Honor the Illustrious Nassau did plainly perceive that the whole Kingdom was put to Sale and Sacrific'd to the Ambition of the French Monarch who is the Darling of St. Loyola he therefore disputed the condition of the Tenure with the first unfortunate Proprietor and the Title of the Purchase with the other bold Pretender God hath been pleased to Crown him with success against both nor can it lessen the Glory of the Atcheivment if after his Majesty we make an Honorable mention of our Bishops and Petition the Champion of our Church on their behalf since the Umbrage of their name hath been so advantag'ous to his design In this confidence I presume that the Address Subscribed by our last Grand-jury may be worthy of it's short vindication because it speaks in Favour of the very same Men who could never trifle with Earthly Princes they are those Reverend Persons who first taught us to Petition after a just and Honorable way and by their Prayers and Tears promoted a successful Address to the Court of Heaven The Crime with which they now stand charg'd do's not consist in gross Immoralities nor is their suspensions as I have already discover'd for any base complyance with the noted miscarriages of the late Government but it proceeds from their refusal to swear in a certain settled Form of Words to the present under which notwithstanding they endeavor to live conformable They conceal their Reasons and therefore in good manners I shall not dive into them further then to suppose that in matters of such importance one and the same standing Rule do's direct them so that if the expressions are so moderately qualify'd that their Hearts may in so serious a performance move with their Lips an Oath doth not bare the consideration of a scruple with them but they esteem Hypocrisy to be too mean a slave to intrude either into their external Submissions or to be Listed with them in the Service of their Prince Althô this Practice be not agreeable to carnal Policy which serves as a Weather-cock to all Changes yet in Matters of solemn Moment all hasty and sudden Complyances are by the Rules of true Ethicks strictly condemned for as we ought to chain the means and the end together so must we never disjoyn the Vtile and the Bonum And therefore Prudence which being an intellectual Vertue is by Aristotle defined to be an habit of right Reason doth consult not only of the Universal Precepts and Laws of Life which are more certain then to require much deliberate Study but descending and that more properly to particular Actions and to their various Circumstances from which the Regularity and depravity of those Actions depend she brings them up the Touch-stone of Reason and Vertue And having taken Counsel by a diligent preparation of Mind she then makes her choice and adheres to that which is best Now as a deliberation cannot be perform'd without freedom of Spirit so neither can there be a good Election where the Office of deliberation is not fully determined For Conscience which with respect to the knowledge of Right and of Fact is a conjunct Science must give its concurrent Vote in all Matters of Practice or else the Consultation is frivolous and irregular or rather no Consultation at all and therefore if the Mind doth still strive with Intricacies and cannot be certain of the probability or rather the necessity of Right it will never admit the necessity of Fact be the temptations otherwise never so powerful So that as Prudence doth attempt nothing of importance which hath not an apparent Profit annex'd to it so doth she esteem that alone to
be profitable which is also good The Wisdom of the best Statesmen has still entertained this Moral Doctrine for a just Principle and certainly it doth afford the best interpretation to that memorable Expression of Vlpianus which he deliver'd as a great Law of Politics to the Romans In Rebus novis constituendis evidens utilitas esse debet ne recedatur ab eo quod diu aequum visum est and I cannot but believe it was also introductive as of the late Practices so of the present Sentiments of the Bishops who are not govern'd by a Peevish or Supercilious humor but mourn in Spirit for the Miseries of the Protestant Church and pray for the Prosperity of the English Canaan thô like Moses they are not permitted to enjoy an Inheritance in it This which some call Obstinacy Pride and Prejudice the three grand Enemies of prudential deliberations will appear as I hope no such dangerous and wicked temper when we have modestly considered it and charitably interpreted it I am confident the World need not be advertis'd under what a dreadful Hurricane our Nation hath lately laboured I shall not make a sorrowful research after a like Example into the Confusions of former Centuries when the Pagan or Popish Religion did bare a Regency in the Land It is most certain we have had nothing that Challenges the Affinity of an exact Parallel to those Troubles since our Blessed Reformation Our Bishops therefore who are professedly studious as of the Peace so of the Glory of that Establishment were loath immediately to admit the sharp and extreme Remedies which were recommended to them as necessary for their own Securities Many others and among them not a few who Flatter'd and Addrest the Abdicated Monarch into his Ruine did rejoyce and triumph in the Afflictions of that calamitous Prince but our Prelates scorn'd such an Unchristian Revenge for if in the Council of Arles under Leo the First it was condemned for an heathenish Barbarity to use Mirth in the House of Mourning and to sport in the view of the melancholy Incentives how could our Holy Primate and his Brethren be suppos'd to Laugh and Sing in the Agony of our Church and State as Samuel mourned for Saul's Abjection so did they lament the late Kings Misery and forgot his rigid Severities exercised on them They have in the great pangs of Spirit and in the anguish of their Soul often wept for their avowed Enemy and endeavoured with their holy Tears like the Sovereign Balm Tree to cure his Wounds who cut and mangled them In short they were Bishops of the best reform'd Church and were cautious how they intermedled in tumult and secular Tragedy And are they not now of the like unspotted Fame for their quiet resignation and peaceable deport under the present Settlement Are they not Sacred in their Majesties Register belov'd and pittyed by Men of exact Piety and highly admired by their greatest Enemies Let us not then furiously pursue them nor deride the loss of their former Stations for thô during their present Eclypse they are not crowned with the brightest Beams yet like the languishing Aecolampadius they clap their hands on their Breasts and say hic sat lucis hic sat radiorum To conclude let them be accounted worthy of the best usage now who were so unworthy of the harsh Treatment in the last Reign we well remember how religiously they then conform'd to the dictates of their Consciences and we are bound in Charity to believe they are not at this time directed by a different Rule The Obligations of Oaths and particularly those in which the Government doth concern its own immediate Interest and Security hath been in all Nations attended with Veneration and Respect The Romans stiled it their Sacrament the violation of which drew after it such a dreadful Chain of Infamy that exceeded the most heavy Penalties Hierocles speaking as from the Chair of Pythagoras pronounces that a great part of Religious Worship is contain'd in it and does plainly affirm that the unstable or timorous ought not to engage in the Solemnity of so Sacred an Act. Philo Judaeus doth admonish every one to whom an Oath is propos'd that he carefully consider all Circumstances and whether he hath a right Notion of what he is doing otherwise saith he the great God is blasphemed The Books of Christians and surely the Bishops have carefully perused them are full of the same Doctrine for they tell us that to avoid all Abuses in this Holy Service we ought to take Three Companions with us viz. Truth Justice and Judgment so that we must no◠oblige our selves to a thing we know is false or evil in its Nature nor to that of which we entertain a dubious thought nor to what is unworthy the Majesty of the Holy God into whose more especial presence we do approach No Person who hath ever treated of the nature of Oaths and their Obligation doth on any account advise or allow the engaging in an Oath which doth raise an unanswerable scruple in the Mind and to which a Man thinks he cannot be exactly conformable without hazarding his Salvation Conscience is a Mark beyond the stretch of Human Power and bares a Sovereign Authority above the Arrests of Parliaments and the Edicts of Princes Nec per Senatum saith Lactantius nec per populum solvi hac lege possumus On this account all Earthly Potentates are excused their Exercise of Jurisdiction the King of Kings having by his Apostle published as the Statute Law of Heaven that whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin Nor do I think that any Monarch can be secure in the Fidelity of those Persons who have first broken their Allegiance with their God since therefore the Suspended Bishops are not yet satisfied in the perplexity of their doubt which so much affects them I suppose that for this Reason they refuse to Swear But truly when I consider the just Merit of these Prelates with the divine Spirit that reigns in their Breasts and the memorable Experience we have had of their former Gallantry I humbly conceive without any violence to the Rules of common Reason Religion and Policy or derogation from the Sacred Proceedings of the two honourable Houses of Parliament that their Parol of Honor to conform with Obedience to the present Government which they are studiously enclin'd to do might have been at first accepted by the Legislative Power as a sufficient Tye upon them without any more solemn Obligation We have Cases even in Pagan story which favor the Merit of Vertue for the Ephesian Judges in consideration of the sincerity of Hermodorus would not for a time permit him to give testimony nor be otherwised obliged by Oath And Cicero in his Oration for Cornelius Balbus reports of an honest Athenian how that when he approach'd to the Altars on the like performance the great Council did reclamare and would not suffer him to be sworn of whose Faith and Veracity the Gods
Traffick they held with the Court when they accepted an Equivalent and engag'd by stipulation to assist the common Enemy of Protestants in the Subversion of the best reformed Church in the World This in plain Truth was the pregnant Impulse that gave breath to many of the fulsome Addresses presented by that numerous Party to the King and raised their Spiritual Fury to such a Degree as readily to dispense with the Fanaticism of the Church of Rome on condition that what they called the Popery of the Church of England might tumble to the Ground Thus were they content to have seen the Abomination of a cursed Aelia set up over our Arch-Bishop's Gate to have seen the Popes Ware-house opened in our Ecclesiastical Courts to have seen Nuntiös Apostolic whipping Heresy out of our Chapels to have seen the Separatists cherish'd by Royal Favour and the Church of England alone dismantled of all her Priviledges O the Religion O the patience of the pretended Saints who to revenge an old quarrel could so tamely permit the Roman Managers to mingle their Tyber in our Thames and to make Lambeth the Faubourg of their Lateran Palace I suppose all honest and judicious Men are by this example sufficiently satisfied that the Practices of some Men are agreeable to their Writings and that what was at first thought a difference in mere Ceremony is chang'd into a mortal Fewd I would to God these Men had bid Adieu to ill Nature under the kind influence of our present Government but alas the same Doctrine is still carefully convey'd from the Pulpit to the Peoples Ears and from their lofty Oracle you may hear long Prayers for the confusion of Prelacy How may it therefore with reason be supposed that these forward Enthusiasts can have any tolerable Charity for our Diocesan and our other Bishops or any Favourable regard to those that undertake their Defence who think it their Duty to Preach to cry aloud and to act violently against their very Order and Function They love not a Bishop be he ever so good they pity not a Bishop be he ever so afflicted they envy those Bishops that do conform and they rejoyce at their Calamity who are Suspended It is now I confess high time to draw to a conclusion but before I do it I am obliged thô not without some reluctancy of mind to direct a few more Words to these very Men on a Subject in which I had rather be excused with silence for since the same oppugners of our Prelates are for a certain grand Reason well known to themselves but which I shall studiously at present conceal much averse to the Suspended Bishops because they maintain the Doctrine of Non resistance and Passive-Obedience I intreat the Readers Patience to attend me whilst I endeavour to vindicate the Good Fathers in this one distinguishing Principle and Character of our English Church And therefore although to carnal and worldly Reason which respects more nicely the cadence and congruity of Words then the sincerity of Actions Passive-Obedience may sound as harsh and inconsistent as Passive-resistance yet the wholsom Doctrine which is couched under those significant Terms is not so tamely to be hissed off the Stage We have an Authentic Nomenclature in the New Testament where we find the Words register'd both in the same expressive language and in the like Sense and we have there a great Example who was an exact Copy of the Doctrine and patiently permitted wicked Men to draw the litteral Characters of it in large Capitals upon him For if we trace our dear Saviour from his Temptation in the Wilderness to his Agonies in the Garden and from thence through the other dark scene of horrors to his Crucifixion we shall find that his Command of more then Twelve Legions of Angels could not prevail with him to attempt his Security by the Thunder of and Force against the rude insolencies of barbarous Sinners The Author to the Hebrews tells us that though Christ was the Son of God yet be learned patience by the things he sufferd Heb. c. 5. v. 8. and St. Paul affirms to the Ephesians that the holy Jesus became Obedient unto the death even to the death of the Cross Chap. 12. v. 8. which two Texts of Scripture do give a sufficient Authority to Passive Obedience and to the very Letter of the Expression We read also in St. Peters first Epistle c. 2. v. 23. that when our Saviour was reviled he reviled not again that when he suffered he threatned not but commited himself to him who judgeth righteously From which as also from many other passages of Holy Scripture the Doctrine of Non-resistance is fully cleared as a duty necessarily incumbent on the Practices of true Christians especially since the same St. Peter whose indstruction are a general Rule to all Ages assures us in the same place that Christ suffered for our Example that we should follow his steps Now what is proposed for our Example I am sure is for our imitation and if we imitate our Saviour in his patient suffering I know what consequence will be from hence naturally inferred I cannot therefore but tremble at the blaphemy of those wretched Men who have so far Shipwrack't their Faith and a good Conscience as to expose and ridicule the most Divine and Apostolical Truths by affirming that this Doctrine ought no longer to be maintain'd in the Schools in the State or in the Church We may on better Grounds conclude that those who in the pressure of Persecutions are not of the sweet temper of a divine Resignation and who cannot bare their afflictions without murmuring against the appointments of Gods Providence and without loud Clamors and revilings against the Men who oppress them can never pretend to the name of Christians much less can they be entituled to the merit of Confessors or to the glory of Martyrdom Their whole Man must be employed in the Service of their God their Soul with it's Faculties Powers and Will as well as the bodily Members must concur and cooperate in so Divine a Work For Passive-Obedience in property of Speech do's imply the Sacrifice of the mind and Non-resistance is a blessed effect wrought on the outward Man which by a true and sanctify'd mortification is dead unto all worldly Cares and Interests and moves by no other passion then that of Heavenly Love and unlimitted Charity Of this serene Temper was the good St. Stephen who did not render evil for evil and railing for railing nor did he desire from God that the Stones might rebound from him upon his Enemies but he interceded for his Persecutors that the sin might not be laid to their charge Let us trace the Christians in the first Century's and we shall find the same genuin Principle and Spirit reigning among them They did not therefore suffer because they had no Force and Power to resist as some of our false Brethren in compliance with the Jesuits Doctrine do maliciously