Martyrdom was baited with Honours and Wealthy Accommodations it became the more dangerous thereby and tho some good Men foresaw the Temptation and declin'd the Charge yet others we find could not be so perfectly consecrated as to apprehend it And as Riches encreas'd so did Mens Affections too till as Platina himself tells us The Church was defac't with riotous Pomp and sordid Luxury it lookt more like a dissolute Wanton than the holy Spouse of Christ Nay to so prodigious a height was the Ecclesiastical Grandeur advanc't towards the latter end of the 4 th Century that it gave occasion to this Sarcastical Saying of a heathen Consul Make me but Bishop of Rome and I will strait turn Christian. And now the days of darkness were at hand when the Roman Clergy however illiterate according to the mode and genius of the Times wanted not subtilty to advance their secular Designs Several gainful Articles were invented Canons were forg'd and Donations pretended to promote the Royal Splendor of the Church and abett the Pope's unlimited Jurisdiction But do our English Clergy hold any meer pecuniary Doctrines honorary Articles or chargeable Propositions If our Author will be so hardy to assert this and so acute to prove his Assertion I do solemnly promise That by way of Pennance and Mortification for my Mistake I will get all Mr. P n's and Mr. B r's Books by heart a task not to be perform'd standing upon one leg and when 't is done cannot much improve the Christian or the Schollar Therefore whatever degeneracy of this kind may be found among some few which ought not certainly to reflect upon the whole Order must be ascrib'd to an unhappy particularity of Temper to the weaknesses of Old Age or some other such like Infirmity when the Intellectual Fire begins to grow weak and languishing and the Divine Particle is almost overwhelm'd For to speak in the stile of the Learned Annotator upon Lux Orient The Constitution of Youth in those that have not an unhappy Nativity is far more Heavenly and Angelical than that of more grown Age in which the Spirit of the world is more usually awaken'd men then begin to be wholly intent to get Wealth and Riches to enlarge their Interests by the friendship of great Persons and to hunt after Dignities and Preferments Honours and Employments in Church and State And so those more heavenly and divine Sentiments through difuse and the presence of more filling Impressions are laid asleep and their Spirits thicken'd and clouded with the gross Fumes and Steams that arise from the desire of earthly things and it may so fall out if there be not special care taken that this mud which they have drawn in by their coarse Desires may come to that opaque hardness and incrustation that their Terrestrial Body may prove a real Dungeon and cast 'em into an utter oblivion of their chiefest concerns in another State If that sacred Character which adorns and distinguishes the Profession of the Clergy weigh little with our Prefacer yet methinks that Knowledge which as will appear anon doe's a little distinguish 'em from the generality of Canting Travellers should awe him into some degree of deference and respect If he were actually as deep a Padder in Politicks as he would seem he would fear to affront an Order of Men the meanest of which could give him just occasion to hang down the head to blush and to look sillily But we find by daily experience that as there is a Superiority of Education and Wit as well as of Authority so 't is as natural to sordid and illiterate Wretches to run a-tilt against their Betters in Understanding as 't is to others to despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities Here let the generous Reader give me leave to make a stand a while and complain a little of the hard Fate of Learning in this Age Suppose a Man has entertain'd and polisht his Mind and rational Faculties with the Works of those Ancients that rescu'd and preserv'd their natural Reason and Religion amidst all the wildnesses of Pagan Darkness and Coufusion such as Orpheus Homer Euripides AEschylus Menander Xenophon Socrates Aristotle Pythagoras Hierocles and others together with all the Divine and Perfective Discourses of Cicero Seneca Virgil Horace and the rest of the Grecian and Roman Poets and Philosophers let him add to all these the Pious and Seraphical Discourses of the Fathers be able to recite and confute all Heresies from Nicholas and Cerinthus Carpocrates and Valentinus successively down to the times of John a Leyden and all the rest of our Modern Innovators Nay though he comprehend all the Rarities and Treasures of the Vatican the Escurial the Ambrosian Florentine and Bodleian Libraries yet that very wretch whose Politicks and Reading never rais'd him higher than the Dâ—or of Hope Poor Man's Cup God's loud Call A Token for Children The Morning Seeker None-such Charles The Assemblie's Works Scotch Psams and the Account of DENMARK shall start up as Grand a Resolver of Cases expounder of dark Texts confounder of Heresies and modeller of States as the most celebrated Oracle of Divinity or Law Nay a confident Traveller by virtue of a hard Forehead a set of Stories and Legerdemain of the Pen shall on a sudden transform the most Excellent Body of Men into a loose pack of Worldlings and silly graceless Professors Pref. Had these Countries whilst they were free committed the Government of their Youth to Philosophers instead of Priests they had c. This Passage if consider'd in it's just and proper connexion and dependance seems only to relate to the ill management of the Jesuitical Priesthood But I am fully persuaded by Reasons obvious enough that he designs here to stab the Canonical Priest-hood in general and that he would be thus understood by common and injudicious Readers 'T is hard and ill fencing with an Enemy that looks a-squint and such a Character is truly applicable to a great part of this rambling Preface This sort of doubtful or double meaning has done far worse execution than the double Sword of the Bishops which this tender Gentleman seems so much afraid of and while some white ey'd Jugglers have been railing and making faces against Antichrist and the Man of Sin The Church of England has fall'n a design'd as well as unlamented Sacrifice And here I shall observe That our Prefacer is not only affectedly Vain and Romantick in his Projections but commits unhappy Blunders in the management of 'em too The two choice things which he chiefly seems to adore and exalt above the King and every thing that is sacred are the Commonalty and Old Philosophers yet the former even of these he exposes upon the Stage acting like Madmen out of a Principle of punctilious Baseness and to render 'em the more contemptible and ridiculous he shuffles them and the Clergy into one foolish and revengeful Plot A Plot to undoe themselves and their Posterity Account pag.
Man arriv'd to before his time And as the Philosophers acquir'd an Immortality to themselves so they gave a kind of Reputation and Lustre to their Kindred and Acquaintance too 'T was an Honour heretofore to a Gentleman to have been at Athens and convers't with the Grecian Sages Olorus had not been remembred by Posterity but for his Son Thucidides and Seneca observes That the name of Sophronischus had been buried in oblivion but for his Son Socrates Nor had Aristo and Gryllus been known to after Ages if it had not been for Xenophon and Plato Pref. Germany was freer than any other part of Europe till at length 't was Lorded by Captains which in process of time grew Princes and Electors and by Bishops with Temporal Authority who may thank Charles the Great a very bigotted Prince for their double Sword of Flesh and Spirit And again They speaking of the Clergy have cast off the Opinions of Rome in the Supremacy of the Pope and other Points but they would retain the Grandeur belonging to that Church and applaud us for doing both so dextâ—rously Account cap. 16. p. 230. This is all over the exact Genius and Spirit and almost the very stile of a broken-hearted Covenanting Brother as will appear to any that shall peruse the Sayings of the great Lights o' th Church or new Reformation 1641. c. Nay if I well remember the Sweet-singers of Billingsgate canted in this Tune and much after the same manner The Oyster-women lock't their Fish-up And trudg'd away to cry no Bishop Here is a strong mixture of Ignorance and Ill-manners nor is it easy to determine which is the most predominant Ingredient Every Prince it seems that is zealous for the Honour of the Church and Clergy is with him an half-witted Bigot and consequently not fit to Govern and every Modern Prelate and Usurper Nothing doe's more dazie envious and weak Eyes than Ecclesiastick Splendor and a peaceable flourishing Condition of the Church He could make no question as bold a stroke at the Picture of Constantine himself upon occasion and I shall venture to tell him That he has already libell'd most of the Courts and Governments of Europe For the European Princes upon the the first entertainment of the Evangelical Codes admitted the Episcopal Order into their Courts of Judicature so doe's Adam Bremensis particularly speak in Relation to the State of Denmark Starovolscius of Poland Loccenius of Sweden Hinâ—mâ—r and Bignonius of France The Toletane Councils of Spain and Arumaeus a German a much better Lawer and Protestant than our Prefacer speaking of Bishops sitting in the Diets both as Prelates and Princes commends the Wisdom and Justice of that Constitution in relation to true Polity and safety of Religion Indeed the imperial Constitutions before the Papacy began give allowance to Bishops to be Judges in Civil Causes as well as Ecclesiastical which I presume laid the Foundation of this sort of Episcopal Rights and Jurisdiction and all Donations and Favours of this kind from Princes in After-Ages were only a glorious Transcript of this Original The Prefacer seems to have espous'd the Doctrine of the Leviathan part 3. cap. 47. where Mr. Hobbs endeavouring to over-throw Christ's Kingdom in this world represents that Notion as a design or artifice of the Roman Clergy to support their secular Greatness But how Christ's Kingdom upon Earth should be a Popish Imposture to advance ambitious Ends when this Doctrine was first preached by our Saviour himself afterwards by his immediate Disciples and propagated by succeeding Apostolical Men in the Ages of Persecution is a mysterious Riddle which I cannot comprehend But this State of Affliction was not to be perpetual and unalterable for when Kings should become Nursing Fathers of the Church the Evangelical Priesthood was to make a more Glorious Figure in the World St. Peter mentions a Royal Priesthood and this is so far from carrying a new and surprizing sound to the more rational part of Mankind that it has been ever own'd by the more polish't and civiliz'd Nations Among the Romans the Pontifices were carried in a Charriot of State to the Capitol and were allow'd to interpose in matters of Polity and civil Concernment as well as of Religion as Cicero speaks at large in his Oration for his Hoâ—se Among the Bâ—â—ylonians and Egyptians as Josephus writes in his Tract against Appion and which I would have the Author of the Account of Denmark particularly observe there were none thought worthy to be honoured and entrusted with the Office of an Historian but the those of the Sâ—cerdoâ—al Character Every pedling Observator was not then thought fit to communicate the Actions of Princes and brave Men or recommend the Examples of Heroe's to Posterity To give an Account of tâ—â— vast Affairs of State the Revolutions of Governments the various turns of Providence in the advancement declination and fall of Empires and of great Personages to discern the more hidden Springs the private Walks and all the Masques of Villany to trace fallen Vertue through the Cloud and Veil to distinguish nicely betwixt the Prosperous and Brave the Bad and the Unfortunate was thought a task that requir'd a great and unwearied industry a penetrating Judgment a sublime Learning an impartial Reason and other extraordinary Accomplishments in the Undertaker But now each Youthful or Grey-headed Pedant aspires to the Historical Faculty 't is but rambling a little about the Globe casting his eyes around and travelling till he is tired and then he shall lye down fall into Dreams and Visions and rise up an illuminated Historian in a moment and not contented to take the Office out of the Rightful Hands he fancies it to be his peculiar Province to expose the Sacred Office to contempt and ridicule the Priesthood like the Evil Spirit that perpetually haunts him he seeks but can find no rest And that worm of impertinence that is got into his Brain can never lye still till the whole Nation 's disturb'd by it's wrigling Secondly Another preparatory Step towards the carrying on an Antimonarchial Project is making a senseless pother and noise about Tyranny and Arbitrary Power For the people are govern'd by Names and the power of Words and seldom see beyond the surface of things and any little Jâ—ggling Poliâ—itian can in the view of the people make an unfortunate Sally an involuntary Tax or some other trivial Digression appear â— terrible advance towards Tyranny and absolute Dominion This was heretofore the Logick of the Saints as well as of Gottam to uplift the Good Cause in the days of Regeneration and to shew how good Wits can jump upon occasion I shall set down the very words nay the Heart and Soul of the Prefacerâ— Pref. Good Learning as well as Travel is a great Antidote against the Plague of Tyranny The Heroe's celebrated in the Books of the Antients are for the most part such as had destroy'd or expell'd Tyrants Good Learning indeed which the
an Apotheosis that built Temples to Honour and made Proteus a God Our Prefacer takes a special and industrious care while he exalts the venerable Name of Philosopher above that of Priest to tell us That the Ancients recommended abâ—ve all things the duty to our Country the preservation of the Laws and the publick Liberty but invidiously conceals those honourable Titles and Prerogatives given to Kings by Homer Plato and other famous Philosophers among the Greeks To talk of the Honour Duty and Allegiance which we owe to Crown'd Heads is the business of slavish and mercenary Priests and below the consideration of brave Republican Spirits whose Talent is to despise the smiles of Princes as well as their frowns if they stand between them and their duty to their Countrey Methinks he might have done well if he had put among the Antients whose Opinions and Lectures he so highly magnisies some of the Learned Fathers of the Church Quem Deus elegit and Dominus Dei Vice of Tertullian and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Athenagoras sounds well and musically to true Christian Ears and would have help'd to allay the harsher Notes of the great Rights of the People Pref. and Voices of the Boors in Denmark Acc. p. 39. But since the Example and Authority of the Philosophers is own'd to be so Canonical and Sacred I could heartily wish our Politician and his Admirers would consider a little their Noble Sentiments about the danger of Ambitious Enterprizes and Vanity of secular Greatness This wou'd help perhaps to lay some restraint upon the busy and mercurial Tempers of the Age and check the pert Sallies or impetus of their Blood and Spirits Now a consideration or prospect of the mutability and imperfection of secular Grandeur induc't the Philosophers to be grave and sententious as well as the Poets to be satyrical upon this Subject They lookt upon the publick business of the World as too coarse and material for the abstracted Purity of their Thoughts and likewise repugnant to that true serenity of Mind wherein the height of Felicity doe's consist and tho some of 'em were willing to accept of the Goods of Fortune if they chanc't to fall in their way yet they would not creep and fawn or Adorare Vulgus projicere oscula as Tacitus observes of Salvius Otho in order to their advancement They thought necessity might subject a man to these lower Offices of life but never esteem'd 'em as matter of choice or any anxious pursuit Accordingly we find 'em insisting copiously upon the dispraise of those little and fine things which the world calls greatness and some of the Platonists thought the whole Corporeal or visible World by reason of its poor and diminutive Entity beneath the search of elevated Understandings There are many that account a glittering Title little less than an Apotheosis and a long Train of Vassals a kind of Glorification And on the other side there are those who think that all this pomp and noise is but a glorious clog and burden to the Mind that a multitude of Servants are rather Spies than Attendants and not so properly Guards as Executioners I think the latter is at least the more plausible Folly of the two methinks there 's a pleasant and delightful Harmony beyond all the charming prettinesses of State in this one Saying of Horace Nunc mihi curto Ire licet mulo vel si liâ—et usque Tarentum For suppose a man exalted and fixt in a shining Orb and as he sancies himself giving Light to others with his borrow'd Glory Behold the Man surrounded with all the State and Grandeur which his hopes could propound or his ambition could desire May we now salute him by the Name of Fortunate call him Happy or pronounce him great No The more he commands the more he is a Slave he is a fetter'd Vassel to the Tyranny of his Lusts and he is to be look't upon as a Malefactor bound in Chains He feels a pain amidst all his gaudy Diversions and wants that quiet and repose of Mind which may be found in a shady and obscure Retirement and that generous Poverty those magnificent Rags wherein true Honour and Honesty are enthron'd can supply the possessor with more durable Joys and enravishing Satisfactions For beside the inconveniences and loss of time which attend this Station his fears of futurity must dash his Enjoyments with some sharp allay he has doubtless heard of the sad instability of humane Affairs of their various Turns and hasty Revolutions Every slight proverbial Talk about the Inconstancy of Fortune puts him into an Agony and makes him tremble with foreboding Apprehensions For how can he tell but one day may put an end to his Consulship and blast his Expectations with an inglorious Defeat Plato had but three Servants Epictetus but one and Zeno liv'd without any 'T is recorded to the Glory of Terentius Varro That he refus'd the Dictorship and 't was thought an excellent Example in Horace that he could industriously decline Honours in the days of Augustus He that has got the Command of his own time and the happy liberty of thinking enjoys a more valuable Empire than Antony fought for or Caesar himself enjoy'd As he is not confin'd by Time so he is not not circumscrib'd by place and nothing bounds his soaring thoughts but Eternity Certainly Tranquility is the only true Settlement attainable in this life the Furniture of the Mind is the brightest Wealth and Magnificence and He has gain'd the most honourable Employment that has enrich't his Understanding with glorious Ideas and useful Notices of Things I had rather contemplate Aristotle in the Lyceum with the Scepter of Philosophy in his hand and the Crown of Wisdom on his head than see him shining in the Court of Macedon Anacharsis Empâ—docles and the Milesiâ—n Thales were known indeed to have an illustrious Descent but they are famous among Posterity only for their Wisdom Ovid was born to an ample Inheritance and Fortune but commenc't Immortal only by his Wit The Poet Pindar was more highly reverenc't than all the Families of Thebes and amidst the devastation that twice befell that City his house alone as if it had been a sacred Temple was inviolably preserv'd and the divine Plato is more justly celebrated for the sweetness of his Philosophy than for being descended of the Race of Sâ—lon and the Family of the Codri Demetrius Phalerius had more Statues erected to him for his Eloquence than any great Captain or Hero of his Age and we have another illustrious instance of this kind in Georgias Lcontinus Father of the Sophists who as Philostratus notes at any Grand Assembly of the Greeks was used to offer to discourse with an extemporary facility upon any Subject given And this he could perform with equal pertinency too to the surprize and astonishment of all that heard him And for this he had a Golden Statue erected in the Temple of Apollo a Dignity which no
y's the Grand Enquiry is about a Contract upon Record at the first Erection of the English Monarchy If he knows where to find it let him place it in open view erit mihi Magnus Apollo But methinks I see him stand like a man enchanted and fumbling about the matter The man of Confidence becomes meal-mouth'd and bashful on a sudden the high-mettled Hero will not jog on this way No 't is too choice a Nostrum to be publickly expos'd 't is too pretious a commodity to be laid upon the Stall profane and unsanctified eyes must not behold it In Magna Charta which is the great Record of our Liberties the People's Rights and Priviledges are fetch'd purely from the Kings Grants and Donations viz. Of our free and meer Will we have given and granted to our Bishops and to all free men of our Realm these Liberties following And the higher we ascend in the Scale of Monarchy we find the King 's more unlimited and free There were no restrictions or reserves under the first and most Antient Governments no Laws but what lay in the Prince's Bosom as any Beardless Boy that has read Justin and Virgil can sufficiently inform him And 't will bring but little Glory to his Cause if I tell him that the first notorious Encroachment upon the Rights of Majesty in England were made by Popish Aggressors This was first attempted in the time of King William the First whom we commonly tho' perhaps not properly call the Conqueror But he was too wise and puissant to admit the least diminution of his Regality and tho' he was very generous and candid in his Concessions yet he dismiss't the Pope's Legate with an Alterum non Admisi In the Reign of Henry the Second Monarchical Power was at a low ebb indeed when the imperious and barbarous Monks of those times dealt with their Prince as some rude Heathens do by their Gods viz. chastise and whip 'em if they do not answer their insolent Expectations The Case of King John is too derogatory and sad for a true Loyal English-man to think on or to repeat And the Condition of Poor England in the time of Henry the Third is a fair indication of what pernicious importance it may prove to the Publick when Princes shall admit a Superior and controlling Power even in the softest acceptation of the Word Sir W. T. tells of an ingenious Spaniard he met at Brussels who would needs have it That the History of Don Quixot had ruined the Spanish Monarchy for when all the Love and Valour of the Spaniards was turn'd into Ridicule they began by degrees to grow asham'd of both and to laugh at Fighting and Loving What ill influence and impression this Fabulous and Romantick Account may leave behind it by representing persons and things sacred in a Ridiculous Garb and Colours I cannot yet determine However 't is good to make Provision against the worst and since an Apologue has had its good as well as evil effects I shall here confront one Fable with another It happen'd that a great sedition was in Rome and the common people were so incensed against the Senate Nobles and Rich Men that all things seem'd now to be a running into confusion Whereupon the Senate sent one Menenius Agrippa an eloquent and wise person to the multitude to persuade 'em Who being admitted amongst 'em and finding 'em all in a hurry is said to have Address'd himself to 'em after this manner Upon a time there arose a great Sedition among the Members of the Body against the Belly the eyes ears hands and feet said That they all of 'em perform'd their several Offices to the Body but the Belly doing nothing at all as a lazy King enjoy'd their Labours and idly consumed all those things which were purchased with the sweat of the rest The Belly replyed That indeed these things were true and therefore if it pleas'd them from henceforth they should allow it nothing The Members all agreed That nothing should be given to it for the time to come But when this had been observ'd for some little time the Hands and Feet lost their strength and all other Members began to fail so that at length they perceived That the Food which was given to the Belly was also advantagious to all the rest and upon this consideration they return'd to their Obedience Upon the hearing of this Fable the People understood That the Wealth which was in the hands of Great Men was also in some sort beneficial to themselves And upon some kind promises of the Senate they were reconciled to their Superiours It has not been my main business of late nor is it worth a thinking man's while to read o're the Licentious Histories that peep abroad or the Popular Accounts of things I knew nothing of the inside of the Account of Denmark till the Third Edition appeared upon the Stage about which time I was desir'd to make some Remarks upon it and give it a just Answer and Castigation Had I had more time and leisure for the performance I should perhaps have been more copious in my Animadversions but I hope I have said enough to tame a little the impertinence of that Man who had insulted over the Nobility Clergy and both Universities and made the Names of Princes his Sport I have bound him to some method and I hope to better Behaviour for the future and tho' I find little of Argument throughout the whole yet I have proceeded fairly and argumentatively against him I have plainly shewn That all the choice means and expedients used heretofore to destroy the Monarchy and Church are exactly transscrib'd by him and crowded into a Preface And certainly That man has a greater share of kind Nature than good Apprehension that can think he has singled out the same Antichristian Methods without the same black Intention and Design I know his Admirers have one Infallible way of answering all opposers and that is by Ill Names They have not Wit enough to discern the Reason of things nor know they when to laugh or be severe in the Right place If the Prefacer without Reason roul in hard words and Names such as Ideâ—t Ass Tyrant Nonsensical Blunders and the like it passes with 'em for the Mettle of a Pree-orn Subject But if we upon just provocation prove the same upon them O 't is sad scurrility and Railing They are meek lowly and poor in Spirit while they are sawcy to their Superiors and despise Dominion But 't is pride and crying presumption in us if we offer to correct a little snarling Republican If they trample upon Bishops and Blaspheme Kings They are only Zealous and concern'd for God and his Glory but if we expose the Scismatical Licentiousness of the disobedient Brother-hood O 't is rank Malice and a degree of persecution The World has ever been full of such pretious Judges and Arbitrators as these And we know the Pharisees were even this way
Whereas the Christian Religion allows no such Precedure against the most Capital Enemy If he be a Celsus a Porphyry or a Julian we must do good good unto him but we seem to forget that we are Christians if we go about to pray for his Destruction Bless and Curse not is the Motto of Christianity the great and conquering Precept of the Gospel 'T was this that was the inoffensive Armour of a Primitive Christian that gave a lustre even to Martyrdom it self that kindled a Veneration and an awful Dread in the Breast of the persecuting Heathen 'T was this that softned the rudenesses of Tyrants that captivated Rome's flying and triumphant Eagles and made Arms and Empire truckle to Religion Again this will help to guard us against the dangerous Rocks of Presumption and Despair for even God's Goodness is mostly to be feared in a state of Impenitency tho 't is the only Refuge for the humble and repenting Sinner His Wisdom by which he comprehends the Ideas and mutual Referencies of all things if seperated from this Attribute might degenerate into the extreamest Tyranny and Imposture His Holiness speaks little comfort to our Souls for he is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity His Justice alone must needs terrify and affright us for if he should be extream to mark what we do amiss there 's no Man can abide it His Power without Goodness is the very Emphasis of Condemnation for he is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell But when we have his Love interceding for us all other Attributes as they partake of this will close in perfect Harmony for our Salvation his Justice will reward our mean Services and Endeavours for the sake of Christ's Merit and his Soveraign Power for ever will protect us This will also secure us against all worldly Accidents and foreign Contingencies render us undaunted in the midst of Dangers steady and immoveable tho all the world should be in an uproar against us For when we are once environ'd with this gallant Consideration That that is best which now is since it comes from the hands of a wise and indulgent God our Inclinations and Desires will all be wrapt up in the divine Will and we shall act with full freedom and approbation of Mind whensoever the fiercest Calamities shall assault us like some departed Spirits caught up to Paradise we shall stand above the reach of Fortune and the malice of the World and our Souls will shine bright unsullied and unmov'd above Clouds and Storms like the Lamps of Heaven Thus much I have thought fit to Discourse for the sake of the Author of the Account of DENMARK for I know no Man that has more need of a Sermon or Solemn Lecture than himself If I have contributed any thing towards a better Settlement of his Head and Fancy I have an abundant Recompence However at least I hope he will not take it unkindly at my hands that I suppose him not quite harden'd against Conviction I have ever thought and do persevere in my Opinion That the Pride of the Animal Life a too ardent Love of Riches and Worldly Honours which are pretty glittering Bawbles indeed to please Children in Understanding and a want of contemplating the glories of another Life are the main Fundamental Objection and Argument against the Passive Doctrines maintain'd by the genuine Sons of the Church of England This fills Mens Hearts with coarse and sordid desires and makes their Heads swell with the Wind of Fantastical Doctrines about Liberty without a just restriction Till at length the Distemper or Malignancy breaks out into a vain Out-cry against Tyranny and Slavish Opinions This makes Men play pragmatically with the Names of Princes and great Personages and think it a fine thing to find out and correct the Errors of their Superiors 'T is this has occasion'd the Heats and darling Contentions of the Age which have almost chang'd the state of Christianity into a state of War and turn'd the World into a dreadful Theatre of Blood-shed and Confusion And now since I have just mention'd the Church of England which is so much Carpt and Rail'd at I will add thus much that 't is the purest Church throughout the whole Compass of Christendom that I know of That she maintains the nearest resemblance and conformity to true Primitive Christianity and notwithstanding all the little Braveries and vain contradictions of her despairing Enemies does still retain her Antient Motto I mean Her unshaken Allegiance to her Prince And therefore if God out of a just and anger and Indignation for our Offences should suffer his Beloved to be carried into Captivity or laid waste by a Foreign or Domestick Power Yet this shall be her Triumph in the midst of her Tribulations That She was never guilty of Idolatry or Superstition Sacriledge or Rebellion and that nothing else but those crying Abominations which her Principles disclaim have ruin'd and destroy'd Her I desire to embrace her with an Apostolical warmth and a Primitive Resolution and may say unto Her as our Saviour does to his Beloved in the Canticles O my Dove that art in the Clefts of the Rock in the secret places of the Stairs let me see thy Countenance let me hear thy Voice for sweet is thy Voice and thy Countenance Comly O thou Lilly among Thorns O Fairest among the Daughters Let me enjoy thee Living and when Death shall come may I dye in thy Embraces and breath out my Soul in Amorous fits of Devotion That Phaenix-like being resin'd by Corruption and kindling anew in the very Act of Extinction I may mount aloft into the Bridegrooms Palace and fly out of thy Arms into Abraham's Bosom FINIS ERRATA TIT. pag. pr. Caedis r. Caedes Pr. Philip. 3. r. Philip. 13. Pag. 23. l. 11. f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pag. 27. l. 24. f. Dictorship r. Dictatorship pag. 73. l. 7. f. in r. is Page 99. f. Democtitus r. Democritus Pag. E. r. AE Pag. a. r. 1. c.