of their Leaders in a wonderful admiration But Sir before I enter immediately upon this task I have thought it might not be wholly impertinent to vindicate this enquiry from those Censures which it will be most sure to meet with from others when it is once discovered And two there are that perhaps it may be assaulted withal Either first that such an enquiry is useless and the expence of precious time though I 'll assure you this hath not taken up much will lye heavy on him that pursues it Or else secondly that it is allready obvious and plain and he will but hold a Candle to the Sun that endeavours to account for it These are the principal I am apt to fancy of any that we need fear as for any other little petty objections or clamours that its like these concerned persons would raise against it we will wholly disclaim and relinquish our Philosophy if we be much concerned at them Now for the assoiling the first of these I will take liberty to assert that certainly he is either a deeply interested person or a very superficial Speculator that can have the confidence to owne it For first a man without pretending any great spirit of prophecy may easily foretel that while they possess this great esteem they will most easily influence their people how they please Sir it is a great truth That the people generally judge by their affections rather than their judgments and those whom they admire and reverence they commonly pay an implicite Faith to all their placits they will seldom be at the pains or leisure of examining things in their naked garbs but usually go some nearer and easier way and pass sentence upon them as they comply with or dissent from their passions and humours and inclinations or some external interests And nothing is more easie to observe than this viz. what a mighty influence the reputation of a speaker hath in raising a ready admittance for what he delivers into the minds of men whilst he that labours under prejudices and encounters with a prepossessing disrespect shall be little or not at all regarded in what he speaks though he were as Eloquent as Tully The same things delivered by different persons are very differently resented Nay many times a jejune and flat discourse from one men love shall be mightily cryed up before the most excellent compositions of one whom they value not And indeed Sir it requires no mean stock of Philosophy for a man to free himself from such prepossessions and to be able to receive a truth equally from all men Even the Spartan Lords as wise and as grave as they were yet if an useful truth were delivered by any of an ill repute would have it repeated by one of a better esteem as if truth were not equally so from any men but owed it's acceptableness to the reputation and credit of him that spake it And therefore secondly one of the surest ways and methods to reclaim their followers will be by taking of them off from this high esteem of their Leaders and while that remains fixed there will be little hopes of success by any other endeavour In vain shall you endeavour to perswade men to disbelieve or abandon those whom they have so dear an esteem and respect for it will be too difficult a task to bring them to believe that those they so highly reverence will ever be so basely unworthy as to teach them untruths or lead them into perdition No No their love expects and hopes for other returns and better usage from them And this I am apt to believe will be sufficient to secure this undertaking from this imputation at least in all sober and unprejudiced persons esteem I doubt not but these men will cry out we might have been better employed and have exercised our deep reasonings for in such terms I expect their Sarcasms in more profitable and useful Theories But so have I heard malefactors condemn and rail at the activeness of their pursuers and assert they might have been more profitably employed than in their discovery and apprehension while others have applauded and commended it as hugely conducive to the weal-publick And certainly those that consider this to be one great cause and Origine of our present distempers will think the endeavouring to obstruct it a very charitable design and hugely contributive to the Peace of the Church And I can sincerely witness that a sense of this was the only reason of this enquiry Nor Secondly Is it any so very obvious and palpable a thing as some would perhaps be apt to perswade us but may very well require the pains of a close Enquiror rightly to state the reasons of it And truly among the Ordinary Occurrences of things that we commonly converse withal very few seem more odd and strange For let us a little while if you please stay to examine the reasons that in such cases are commonly obvious and which the Patrons of this second objection doubtless would readily fix upon and assign as the reasons of what we enquire now about I will examine some of the principal ones and endeavour to let you see how wide they are in assigning any of them 1. The first shall be the great learning of these dissenting persons these great men This you know Sir is naturally accounted a very great adornment to any person and consequently renders him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some great one in the esteem and thoughts of others If we should narrowly search into the artifices and methods by which men have attain'd to honour and renown in the World we should quickly be able to assert that Valour and Learning have been the chief these have been the two great Engines by which men of brisker mettle have lifted up themselves above the rest of their brethren and attained to shine in higher Orbs than they I am not concerned either to discourse of the first of these though perhaps some would say that they approved themselves good at the Sword or to arbitrate on which side the degree of merit seems to remain whether the Cedant arma togae may be a Text authentick Or whether the Sword be not of solid and lasting metal while the Pen is but the excrescence of a rude Soul It will be more pertinent to remember you how successful a reputation for the latter hath been to the Heathen Priests of old in conciliating a reverence for them from their poor blind ignorant Proselytes and how very sensible those men were that this alone was the secure way to confirm them in this gainful veneration Therefore were the Heathen abdyta so industriously concealed from vulgar notice and not a man admitted into their mysteries till after several years probation and study As if no mean stock of Learning were needful for a Priest And those few that we read of admitted into these arcana in any other method were yet all of them persons whom common fame reported for
followed not the Beast But Sir if we grant them to be sufferers in earnest yet surely we must count them but in jest when they pretend it to be for Righteousness sake And yet so we know they do and by all means endeavour to nourish this Opinion in their Votaries They very well know they have not a more plausible way by which to assure the people of their integrity and conscientiousness than this is for who can doubt him serious and in earnest for his Religion that will suffer for it What mad men were we I have heard some say to undergo these things but that our Consciences oblige us thereto so that you must needs believe them good men upon this account for they 'll forego any thing of Worldly concern rather than violate their Consciences and who must not praise and honour such Devoto's Alas Sir a considering person knows this to be a very fallible mark of Integrity and it may safely be asserted that it is possible and common to some men to take a pride in suffering We know that great instance of Stoicism Possidonius under the violent surprises of the Gout and they say there are not many things more tormenting could cry out quà m suave quà m dulce hoc only out of pride that he might boast himself able to assert and maintain his own Principles and surely 't is as possible now for some men equally possessed with the same vice to improve that vice to the same end especially when the sufferings are much easiler tolerable and the gratifications of the vice much more considerable For none of the afflictions pretended to by these men can be near so tormenting as his the Persons are untouched and there 's no fire nor fagot to torment and while the Stoick had but the content only to praise and extol himself these have had multitudes to applaud and glorifie them for their great constancy yea and besides that to make up by their large charitable contributions all their losses So that even their losses turned to their advantage and Calamy found three days in Newgate as the Ano-Droll told him in effect more gainful than half a years Preaching at Aldermanbury So that now we have found out another Vice that may possibly be in this matter Pride and Covetousness too may have an influence upon some mens sufferings and marvail not that I add this latter for even Covetousness sometimes may be contributive to a seeming lavishness and no man needs wonder to see a man expend a hundred when the Interest is sure to be double to the Principal But Sir I needed not to have taken any pains to demonstrate the fallibillity of this Plea no matter to the multitude whether it be for Conscience or not all the while 't is suffering they examine not the justice or injustice they only slave at the sufferers though perhaps some might suffer as murtherers or evil speakers c. and as long as this is for the beloved Cause they shall be no less than holy Martyrs say you what you can even the late bloody Regicides have been extolled by some as Champions of the Cause and Ravilliack's name shall be rubrick in the Jesuits Calendar 5. Another thing that we ghess to have a causality here is their continual applauding and commending of their people and crying them up still for Saints Sir men naturally love to be commended and have good things spoken of them And of all the noxious things that vain men are fond of Flattery is one of the most acceptable And truly it requires a greater stock and measure of sobriety and prudence than the multitude can be thought to be possessed of to suppress all tumours of Pride that are so mighty prone to arise upon a man hearing his own praise and not to be mightily pleased and tickled with the words of a Parasite I remember Epictetus long since hath laid it down as a mark of a great proficient in vertue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let a man praise and commend his vertue he rather pitieth his ignorance than proudly subscribes to his Opinion and rather takes advantage thence to heighten his humility for causing such a man to mistake than gratifie his Pride as if he merited any such commendation And truly Sir He really is a very good man who can improve his being praised to the advantage of his humility and exciting of his industry and avoid its blowing him up into a proud conceit of over prising his own Excellency Now Sir it seldom fares worse with flatterers than with their message he is counted a good and acceptable man who brings such good and pleasant tidings and men do not more delight to hear the report but they have always as much kindness for him that tells it It hath long since filled the hearts of good men with sorrow and their Writings are every where full of complaints that dextrous Parasites are allways the most acceptable persons to Princes and indeed to all men and therefore 't will be the lesser wonder if they be so to the vulgar who as to the exercises of Reason or Wisdom are but one degree only removed from Children to whom nothing is so grateful as fine words and fair commendations And since we see great men so prone to be mightily pleased with the praises given them by those below them whose praises are rarely or never judicious but ruled mostly by Passion or some fortuitous emergences it will be the less strange to see these mightily tickled with the praises of their Superiours And indeed experience lets us clearly see nothing pleaseth the multitude like Flattery a cunning man by this shall perswade them to more than by twenty good Arguments taken from Conscience or Duty We have seen the successfulness of this artifice in our late intestine Wars how cunningly did those Incendiaries Complement and seek by all means to please and flatter the people Vox Populi was by them asserted to be Vox Dei and the popular vogue was the determination and dictate of Heaven By this means you will find those Primitive Rebels in the Camp of Israel easily draw the people to side with them all the Congregation was holy they were all Gods chosen people and therefore what had Moses and Aaron to do to exercise Dominion and jurisdiction over them and all successful Rebells have ever gone the same way and the Church-Mutineers have always found the method as successful as those in the state Now Sir it is notorious to all men how mighty civil these persons are to their people how careful to caress all their followers with the glorious names of Gods Saints the Lords holy ones the dear people of God the little Flock the Lambs of Christ Jesus the Redeemed ones of Sion the true Remnant of Jacob and the precious elect Seed The Notoriety of this will save me the labour of referring you to any Books or Sermons in which you may find these endearing compellations And
Nay when St. Peter himself becomes scandalous and tempts to evil he is rebuked in no milder terms than Get thee behind me Satan The Corruption of the best is always the worst saith our old Maxim and 't is as true in Morality as Nature It was therefore excellent Advice which the lately mentioned Bishop gave his Clergy That every Minister should judge of his own duty by stricter Measures and severer Rules than he doth that of his People And truly it were a very easie task to instance in many things that in the Laity are tollerable which would carry a very dangerous appearance in the Clergy and be too liable to misconstruction 3. This will be the likeliest way to render thy Preaching Holiness unto others effectual unto its blessed end and thy failing here will be sure to frustrate thy endeavours there It is even a common-place Truth That man is Minical and regards Examples a great deal more than Precepts there are enow have told you that a Preachers good Example is his best Homily and his good Life his most prevailing Sermon And if that Maxim of Chrysostom be true that good Works convince more than Miracles than certainly that Preacher that desires any fruit of his labours must acknowledge himself under the strongest obligations imaginable to be critically careful how he liveth As Religion hath no more powerful argument for it self than the piety of its Votaries for that Fountain must needs be clear whose streams are so so truly no mans exhortations work so powerfully upon us as his who is himself we see affected with them Quae agenda docebat ipse priùs agendo premonstrabat was the commendation of one of our English Saints and ought to be ambition'd by every Preacher Alas as the command of that Captain wakes coldly who only cryeth go in comparison of his that saith Come ignave venire te Caesar non ire jubet so men little attend to those Preachers that bid them go in the paths of Holiness in comparison of them who go before them themselves It 's the language of an Egyptian Pharaoh Go ye and serve the Lord the language of Canaan is O come and let us and which of these is more likely to prevail on man less than a Prophet may easily foretel and that upon very rational grounds also For why should any man think that his exhortation should prevail more with me than himself or hope to perswade me to practise that of which I see him wholly regardless What more compendious course can he take to cause me to mistrust the truth of all his Arguments and suspect them for Fallacies be they never so specious only because I see they have no Faith with him Who regards a drunken mans Exhortation to Temperance or believe that himself thinks that necessary with which he makes bold so constantly to dispense In vain shall you endeavour to perswade men you are serious in pressing those Duties on them which you make no Conscience of performing your selves nor will men ever think those Duties practicable that are wholly disregarded by those that preach them It was therefore an advice worthy of an Apostle which is given to Timothy in this Epistle Take heed unto thy self and to thy Doctrine and certainly the former is of as great necessity as the latter nay necessary in order to it that thy Doctrine may not miscarry be sure take care of thy self for thy loose neglect of thy self will be sure to frustrate the design of thy Doctrine Upon these accounts therefore be sure to exercise thy self unto godliness What Censures then can be too severe for these men when prophane and profligate I hope there are not many but those that are are so many too many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is all the Petition I make for them And I hope we are not yet in such sad circumstances but that it may be granted if the Church may not judge them without yet she may be permitted I hope to govern and correct when need is her own Children Give me leave once more to speak my thoughts before you the Church of Englands Honour will never throughly be vindicated nor her Clergy's Reputation cleared and asserted 'till this course be effectually followed And I doubt not but every good man is sensible of this and will add his suffrage to the conjecture I conclude therefore by beseeching you my B. to suffer the word of Exhortation Let us all combine together in this pious resolution of exercising our selves unto godliness and contending each man to exceed his Brother in it Our Contentions here will I am sure be warrantable and our neglect inexcusably culpable Providence hath cast us upon afflicting times wherein many eagerly hunt and gape for our destruction and who knows but God intends it as an essay of our faithfulness That vindicating our Religion the asserting our own Innocence are only to be effected by this method Our failure will put a Sword into our Enemies hands and make us accessaries to our own ruin while our care will shame the malice of our detractors and put to silence all gainsayers I speak to wise and good men that are able to judge what I say And therefore I speak so little to these things which indeed it is a task not to enlarge upon But I conclude with the Psalmists Prayer Let all thy Priests O Lord be cloathed with righteousness and then shall all thy Saints shout for joyfulness Amen Now to God the Father c. FINIS Licensed April 9. 1673. Roger L'estrange