know none though both of the Clergy and Laity there might be brought in too large a list or Catalogue to our shame be it spoken of the former Que. 2 Among the Reverend Persons who ventured themselves to save our Church and Doctrine from the Assaults made upon the Faith once delivered to the Saints Justine Martyr thought it a Childish thing to have more than simple Singing or to have Musical Instruments used in the CHURCH 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Whether there be not several who would freely consent that the Caps and Copes Surplice and Hood Crossing and Bowing alternate Readings Versicles and Responds Chanting and Musick in our Church Assemblies might be laid aside and a more simple Evangelical inoffensive and less symbolizing form of Divine Service might be establisht among us I am as little averse to Harmony as any yet could not sometimes but with regret observe how the Congregation hath in its solemn Worship been interrupted and Minister stopt from proceeding in his Ministration till the Musick-Master hath delivered his Fancy Paraphrasing upon some Ground shewing his skill by some fuge or descant upon that Text continuing the Voluntary till he could make his Cadence artificially upon the Key In all which being assisted perhaps with a Noise of common Fidlers his tickling the Ears of the Auditory goes for an Elation of Mind and Heavenly Rapture But I believe * Tindal's Opinion do not much differ from the Angelical Doctor 's Organs saith he Musick and diversity of Songs are nothing to the Spirit but is rather extinct through these wanton trifles Acts and Monuments 2d Vol. p. 505. 2 Col. Impress 1684. Aquinas's Opinion in this case doth very well agree with our Experience Hujusmodi enim Musica Instrumenta saith he magis animum movent ad delectationem quam per ea formetur interius bona Dispositio Aquinas 22d Qu. 91. Art 24. M. Arundel Acts and Monuments Vol. 1 p. 610. Col. 2. Arch-bishop of Canterbury preferred a Lesson upon the Organs before the Preaching of the Gospel Orgains saith he and good delectable Songs sharpen more Mens Wits better than any Sermons Obj. Did not David speak of Praising God with Cymbals yea loud Sounding Cymbals 150 Psal 3 4 5 Vers Praise him in the sound of the Trumpet Praise him upon the Lute and Harp Praise him in the Cymbals and Dances Praise him upon the Strings and Pipe Res Moses for the hardness of the Jews Hearts suffered a Writing of Divorce to be given and the Wife to be put away but from the beginning it was not so The Jews were a very perverse and carnal People and therefore God dealt with them as an indulgent Parent with a froward Child who will Cedere à Jure sometimes indulging it in things not so agreeable to the exactest Rules of Prudence rather than too much to thwart and regrate upon its Temper The Prophet saith God gave them Statutes that were not good 20 Ezek. 25. and Judgments whereby they should not live The Jews were very much acquainted with and addicted to the Heathen Rites they had an emulation to be like other Nations and for that reason desired a King which God was pleased to comply with them in though Samuel had ruled over them as one that was just fearing God Nay the Lord said in desiring a King they had not so much rejected the Prophet as himself yet he gratified them in their requests The Heathens in their Worship made use of Altars Sacrifices Priests and they ministring too in Linnen Garments as Tertullian observes Linteam propriam Osiridis Vestem appellat yea and Musick too Thus Nebuchadnezzar had the Cornet Harp Sackbut Psaltery and all sorts of Musick to sound when the great Image which he sate up to be (a) Clemens of Alexandria observed that Orpheus and those ancient Musicians drew in Men by their Singing and the sweetness of their Musick to render them miserable Slaves to Idols worshipped Homer saith that the Greeks worshipped the Heathen Gods with the Harp Bacchus had his * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacerdotes Cybelis quae tympanorum pulsu cornuum cantu Jovis vagitum celabant Saturnum Notae in Horat. Drummers With the same Instrument the Phrygians performed their Service to Cybele And the Egyptians celebrated their Divine Rights to Isis with a Timbrel That the Jews had spent much time among the Egyptians and had a fondness of their and other Heathen Rites is the Opinion of Learned Men. And if God dispensed with the use of some of their Ceremonies to be used in the Worship of himself the true God which they used in the Service of their Idols we may conclude from thence that he was an indulgent Father towards froward Children rather than that it is a lawful and laudable Custom in the Christian Church because it was sometimes used in the Jewish and indulged by God to them as a carnal and teachy Generation This very reason Aquinas gives In veteri instrumento usus erat talium Instrumentorum Scil. Musicae Quia populus erat durus Carnalis Aqu 22 d. q. 91. That is God indulged them the use of Musick under the Law because they were a carnal and perverse People And may we not then conclude with Solomon who had got him Men-singers and Women-singers and Musical Instruments of all sorts that they were no better than Vanity But supposing it an innocent Rite in it self yet if accidentally it be evil scandalizing our weak Brethren and causing them to separate from us as too much symbolizing with Rome shall we not give a yieldance so far as we lawfully may to gain a weak Brother Nec cum haereticis commune quicquam habuerant Cent. Magd. 4. The reason why Gregory advised Leander to lay aside the Ceremony of dipping the Child thrice in Baptism was because Hereticks did so Quia nunc ac Haereticis infans in Baptismate tertio mergebatur fiendum apud vos esse non censeo Obj. This is a Scandal taken not given Res Admit it be so yet a wise and kind Parent will take down that Threshold at which his Child is apt to stumble though perhaps it might be for some good purpose placed in the House and at which the Child needs not falter if it would look well to its Feet Would our Superiors grant this the Psalms of David might then be read in the New Translation which certainly must be accounted the best because the other parts of Scripture are ordered to be read in the Church according to the last Version Why then should the Psalms of David which are the very Cream of the sincere Milk of the Word be read or sung in the Old Translation but because by their punctation they are measured out for the Quire which Custom is a certain hindrance to Edification whilst a great part of the Congregation may go along with the Sound but cannot carry along with them the Sense of so
have all Preferments when time was turned For could the Church and State but lay their Foundation here they concluded their Nest to be built upon a Rock But if Grace be not writ upon the Walls of it the Beam out of its own Timber the Stone out of its own Wall will cry down with it down with it even to the Ground without this we shall but daub with untempered Mortar and may cry Peace Peace when Destruction is at hand St. Austine observed that the Romans built their Temple of Concord where the Seditions of the Gracchi had been acted Tiberius and Caius Which Temple afterwards was so far from restraining Decivitate deâ— lib. 3. cap. 25. that it became a Promoter of the highest and most bloody Outrages For Formality-sake we may carry the Ark into the Camp of our Church but the Glory will depart from us so long as the Sins of the young Men be great but their Reproofs small so that hitherto we have mistaken our Enemies and like the Andabaâ—ae have fought with our Eyes shut contending de lanâ Caprinâ we scarce know what we have fallen out for or with whom Alas it hath been our Brethren of the same Faith and Religion whereas our Contests should have been with Spiritual wickednesses in high places yea such have been the Policy and Envy of those who rejoiced in our Divisions hoping to make their own Market of them as first to perswade that they were no Friends to Caesar and then to engage the Civil Magistrate to treat them as Enemies making them â—riples and then beating them with their Crutches who to get the Staff into their Hand would frequently suggest to the Prince whose Ear they could command that there was a People whose Laws were contrary to the King's Laws and therefore desired him to write that they might be destroyed which contrary to often and open Promises of an undisturbed and free Exercise of their Religion he was frequently prevailed with to do Signing divers Acts for their Prosecution Which by a ravenous sort of Informers were so managed as by Bonds and imprisonments Confiscations and Banishments the protestant Dissenters were ravaged and ruined But such have been the Wisdom of our late Senates to see and discover by whom and for what ends they were thus pusht on and acted The Tide of our Councils seems very much turned SERMON preacht at â—ublin before the Lord's Justices of Ireland by the Dean of St. Patricks Printed 1691. since we have with more chearfulness levied such considerable Sums of Money to reimburse our Neighbours the Charge of our deliverance than what was unaccountably raised and expendedâ— Vt delenda esset Carthago It certainly argued saith the Deaâ— of St. Patricks a very passive and submissive Temper in them to give Money so liberally and to fight so fiercely as they did to destroy themselves and their fellow Protestants to make sport for their common Adversaries and to serve the Interest of their most dangerous Enemies This was saith he part of the Project laid down at large in a Paper found in the Earl of Tyrâ—onnel's House then Colonel Talboâ—â— dated July 1671. supposed to be drawn up by his Brother then Titular Arch-bishop of Dublin viz. in these Words That the Toleration of the Roman Catholick Religion in England be granted and the Insolency of the Hollanders be taken down a Confederacy with France Dean of St. Patrick's Sermon c. the Ashes of Amboina must be raked for Embers to put us in a Flame against them and the Affront urged that was given us when their Fleet refused to make Obeysance and strike Sail to the King 's Yatcht sent among them The first of which some thought was not always to be remembred nor the latter a sufficient Ansa for a National Quarrel or which might have been attoned at a far less rate than it stood this unhappy Nation in both of Blood and Treasure But how then should the great design of extirpating the Northern Heresie which was then the Catholick Project have been managed which many Protestants were inconsiderately easily and with too much Zeal engaged in being great Enemies to their Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Constitutions taking all Suggestions of the fear of Popery to be nothing but the old Puritanical Cant revived and ungrounded Scandal cast upon the King as if he had other designs than to maintain the Honour and Grandeur of the Nation which made many of our own Religion very zealous and valourous in carrying on the War against them But the Parliament taking Scent of this deep-laid Project addrest the King to proceed to a Treaty of a speedy Peace as I remember the Words were esteeming a further Prosecution of the War nothing less than a pulling down those Banks and Barriers which were erected against the See of Rome though too many were too great Infidels to believe it till they felt themselves wet-shod in Holy-water and that Tiber so powerfully brake in upon us that the whole Land lookt bright with Popery When alas all the Remedy the Non-resistance Men could afford us was Who a Devil could have thought it but we hope such care will be taken that there shall be no occasion for them to make us such a second amends or be so far heeded that they should again involve us in the same Circumstances and once more give us another flap with their Tails Non licet his peccare Indeed 't is believed they 'll never boil Prerogative to its former height the all Charters must be arbitrary Officers of State but Judges especially ad placitum the only way to sell Justice and to buy the needy for a Pair of Shooes Then Non-Resistance and Passive-Obedience very true and wholesome Doctrines if rightly stated were the universal Cry and squeezed till the Blood came But the Mischief was when they had nurst the Prerogative till it had stung some of them and hill as all the rest they presently let the World see they never brewed this Doctrine for their own drinking Let a coâ—â—â—â—ed Child be but once sâ—ibbed and it flâ—es in the Face of the most indulgent Parent They ne'er expected that non-Resistance would ever have fallen to their share unless when Preferments and Dignities were offered to their acceptance But when they came to experiment with Perillus the Bull they had framed for others What Out-cries did they make Then they acknowledged we indeed suffer justly But what have our Brethren done whom we pursued with such Revenge and Rage Then they confest that they sacrificed the Interest of the Church to their Malice But if the Dissenters would forbear to comply with the common Enemy they would do great things for them whenever they came again into their Kingdom But alas there 's too too much reason as to such kind of promises to apply that of the poet viz. Ægrotat daemon monaobus tune esse volebaâ— Convaluit daemon daemon ut ante suit In stress of
these scrupled Rites should be omitted unless we condemn all our Brethren of the Reformed Churches who have thought fit to lay aside the Practice of those Ceremonies which among us have ever since the Reformation been a Stone of stumbling and Rock of offence and that not only to some of our weaker Brethren but also to many of the greatest Bishops and Prelates of the Church as I have already hinted Insomuch that Zanchy in his aforesaid Epistle told the Queen that most part of the Bishops Men greatly renouned for all kind of Learning and Godliness had rather leave their Office and place in the Church than against their own Consciences admit of such Garments which are at the least signs of Idolatry and Popish Superstition and so defile themselves with them and give offence to the Weak by their Example 5thly An Abolition of these Rites does not oblige the Church to be subject to every querulous and teachy Complainant suppose a Prince grants the Petition of a Criminal and gives him his Life for a Prey will it therefore follow that he shall never know when he hath done and that Justice shall never be executed because it hath upon some earnest Applications given place to Mercy and yielded to Clemency The King hath thought fit to annul the Act for Chimney-money will it therefore follow no branch of his Revenue must stand unrepealed Suppose the Church should repeal and cassate the Laws for the Ceremonies for the Reasons that have been alledged will it therefore follow that nothing must ever be setled for the maintaining of Order and Decency For though it may grant some things with Reason will it follow therefore it must yield up every thing without Reason 6thly If nothing must be granted by way of Relaxation in point of Conformity upon the Reason objected then the Church's Peace can never be secured For more than an hundred Years viz. over since the Reformation the Church hath had and suffered many a bitter Pang for the sake of these offensive Rites and Ceremonies she hath had a constant struggle in her Womb by reason of them They once fretted out her Bowels and they are again and have been ever since their Restoration with Charles II. as Moths fretting her Garments They have been the constant Troublers of our Israel And I am afraid if with Jonas they be not cast overboard they will at one time or another sink our Ship Though I earnestly wish whatever be the event of this Essay there may never be any occasion to lament the fulfilling of this Prophesie among us as with bitter cries we have lived to bewail the Fate of Zanchy's And shall we ever retain that Leven that is so apt to sowre the whole lump shall it never be purged out Oh that it might once be Augustus Caesar caused all the Glasses to be broken lest the use of them should occasion Blame and Terror to the Servants and create Strife in the Family the thing applies it self c. 'T is true we are Brethren we have the same Father the same Faith the same Baptism the same Religion as to all the Substantial parts of it Why should we have a Partition-wall built betwixt us Whilst we are two Flocks differences will be apt to arise and cause the Herds-men to fall out and what Flames such Sparks may kindle among us our former Ashes and Experience are sufficient to make us dread the Incendiaries and Boutefeus Let us then no longer shut our Eyes that we should not see the things which concern our Peace Let us now be one Sheepfold under one Shepherd An Act of Comprehension would effect this Were the Declaration of Charles II. concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs cast into the Form of a Law I believe our Schism would in a great measure presently in process of time be totally extinguished And the hurt of the Daughter of our People by the Balm which distils from it effectually cured Which was formerly the Opinion of an excellent and reverend Divine of our Church I shall give it you in his own Words If ever saith he a Divine Sentence was in the Mouth of a King and his Mouth erred not in judgment I verily believe it was thus with our present Majesty when he composed that admirable Declaration which next to Holy Scripture I adore and think that the united Judgment of the whole Nation cannot frame a better or a more unexceptionable Expedient for a firm and lasting Concord of these distracted Churches Solomon saith a Man of Understanding is of an excellent Spirit and the worst wish I have for our Mother the Church is that all her Sons were of no worse Temper Then we should have our wish viz. one Sheepfold nay what 's better the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Sir Matthew Hale Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench Sir Matthew Hale was of Opinion That the only means to heal us was a new Act of Uniformity which should neither leave all at liberty not impose any thing but necessary In the mean time it were to be wisht that publick Authority for Peace and Union sake would strictly prohibit and restrain the Pulpit from uttering Invectives against our Dissenting Brethren and that the Mouths of such as speak high-swelling Words against them may be stopt This would be a very good Preludium to Union and Peace if this Rallery might be curbed and such as cause Divisions in the Church might be markt Obj. 2. Is it reasonable to indulge those who dissent from the Orders and Constitutions of the Church granting to them a Liberty of Conscience when our reverend Fathers and Brethren cannot be dispensed with viz. The deprived Bishops and Clergy who for Conscience sake dare not submit to swear Allegiance to our present Sovereigns And are not their Consciences as tender to them as other Or do not they who when time was stood against the pressing Inundations of Popery and extravagant Exercise of Royal Power as much deserve Indulgence as those that on this account desire it Res 1st To put a Curb into the Chap of Tyranny or Hook into the Nostrils of Popery are Actions becoming true English Men and Protestants Nor is the Defence which was made against both by the censured Prelates ever to be forgot and how they Jeoparded themselves in the high Places in the Defence of our Christian and Civil Liberties â— Ezek. 20. But if a righteous Man shall forsake his Righteousness and do that which is evil all the Righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembred 2dly Supposing their refusal to comply is Matter of Conscience I most heartily wish and in my Place and Station would so far as I am able make it my endeavour as I desire Liberty for my self and others that they may be treated with all the Indulgence and Compassion which the Powers in being can extend towards them and that they may never meet with such measure as have been meeted out to
Nation satisfied in the Belief of the Truth all future Claims and Pretences to the Crown annulled and quasht which their own Interest if no other Argument might have prevailed with the Court to have condescended to And when this be answered I 'll believe as the then Rampant Roman Faction would have me believe But things of so great concern being every where questioned and disputed one would have thought that if the P. of O. had askt a greater thing then to have a Parliament freely called to have sit upon and considered these weighty Affairs it would not have been denied by the late King as a thing unreasonable who at last condescending Writs were issued some Members chosen (a) Vbi judicia deficiunt ibi incipit bellum Grot. de jure Bell. pac Lib. 2. Cap. 1. But all of a suddain those which were not yet issued were supprest those sent abroad superseded and the Parliament in its birth annulled and stifled the Broad-Seal of England he vilely cast away into the Thames and at last betaking himself to (b) Si rex aut alius quis imperium abdicavit ant ma ifeste habet pro derelicto in â—um post id tempus omnia licent que in privatum Idâ—m Lib. 1. Cap. 4. flight turned his Back upon the Nation leaving it without any Provision for its Government to shift as well as it could for it self Obj. But is it not very unjust to drive him away by force and then charge his flight as a Crime upon him when he durst stay no longer Res This is the common Objection which those who are back Friends to their Country Men who are satisfied neither full nor fasting frequently make use of to banter and if it could be bafle those who assert the Legality of our present Setlement But ' â—will be no hard matter to evade the dint of it for as to his Fear it was but rational there being none that was not more stupid than a Stoick but in so great a Convulsion of State must exceedingly fear and tremble as to the Force pretended to be up on him we utterly deny it for when the Posture of Affairs had made it necessary for the P. of O. to come to London and the King himself had invited him to St. James's it could not be thought safe for the King to continue at Whitehall lest any justle betwixt the Guards might occasion Bloodshed and hazard his Person wherefore he was desired to withdraw to Ham-house or any other place he should choose But finding the Fire he had kindled had made the Nation too hot for him he deserted and fled into France But he that hath raised a Storm cut off the chief * The Parliament Anchor which should secure the Vessel hath as little reason to alledge his hazard in defence of his sliting the Vessel and abdicating his trust to the Mercy of the Sea as to blame the Ship 's Crue for electing a new Pilot in the absence of the former to manage it in it's danger and steer it into the Harbour In this great and eminent Conjuncture and Emergency the States of the Realm assemble to consult Methods and concert Measures for the publick Safety which High-Court beyond which we have no appeal did upon mature deliberation great Debate and weighty Arguments declare resolve and decree (a) For this reason the Crown was setled upon the Prince and Princess of Orange The Words mentioned in the Instrument of Setlement are these viz. And whereas the late King James II. having abdicated the Government and the Throne being thereby vacant c. Act. 1st William and Mary That the King 's leaving of the Realm in such a manner was an Abdication of the Kingdom whereby the Throne was vacated and consequently the Government was dissolved Which Resolution and Judgment was by this present Parliament confirm'd ratified and recognized in these Words viz. We do recognize and acknowledge your Majesties were are and of right ought to be by the Laws of this Realm our Sovereign liege Lord and Lady King and Queen of England c. By Virtue of which repeated Judgment and Decree he is King not only de facto but de jure according to the Laws of our own Country which Judgment is either according to Truth or mistaken if the first by all Mens Opinions it ought to be obey'd but if mistaken yet we are bound to observe it and I think may do it with a good Conscience because we are no Judges of Law especially in so intricate and difficult a Case Suppose an Estate be decreed in Chancery to A. when perhaps according to right it belongs to B. as afterwards may appear by a Reverse of that Judgment given in Parliament upon an Appeal made thither yet A. may lawfully hold the Possession of the Estate against B. till the Decree be reversed for though the Decree was not made according to Law yet according to Law it binds till it be corrected by another Judge or annulled by a Superior Court Now this Judgment of Parliament concerning the Abdication of the Realm and Vacancy of the Throne though we should suppose it mistaken yet that Court being Judge of the Law we are bound by the Judgment they give because they and not we are Judges of such Matters Now the Author of the Case of Allegiance doth grant Pag. 54. That what Prince we must obey and to what particular Person we must pay our Allegiance the Law of God doth not tell us but this we learn from the Laws of the Land Now the Law of our Land saith we must pay our Allegiance to King William So that according to this Rule he is King of right as well as of fact Now his Question is whether if a King de jure be dispossessed of his Throne and a King de facto be possessed of it without a legal Right to which of these two the Subjects are bound to pay their Allegiance But I take this not to be our present case for according to the Judgment and Decree of the highest Court of Judicature the late King (a) Obj. But King James was King de jure Res So was Charles II. but both their Rights are extinct one being naturally the other dead in Law as is decreed by the highest Court in England And he that sits upon the Throne declared by the same to have as good right to the Crown he wears as his Predecessor before he gave up the Ghost I mean his Kingdom to provide for it self is not the King de jure for this Act of Abdication is declared by our Law not to be a bare Dispossession of the Throne but a total Extinguishment of his Right And that if he should be ever restored to these Kingdoms again he must receive a new Investiture or else he cannot be King And whereas he seems to suppose our King William only to be King de facto and without legal right possessed of the Throne
in England falsly pretenced and that it was most justly abrogated by the King Fas est ab hoste doceri that all other Bishops were in their Function equal to him and in their Provinces in many things above him More of this may be seen and the Supremacy of Rome learnedly and rationally disproved in a Letter writ to Cardinal Pool by Cuthert Tonstal Bishop of Duresme and John Stoksly Bishop of London Acts and Monuments Vol. 2. pag. 289. Edit 1684. Which Doctrine was so generally owned that it was subscribed by one and twenty Bishops eight Arch-Deacons seventeen Doctors of Divinity and of both Laws Obj. That was a forc'd put only to comply with the Genius of an Head-strong Prince and Humour of the time Res It hath been formerly promised that the Priests Lips should preserve Knowledge but now it seems they served for another purpose viz. to preserve their Bishopricks but the Scriptures they cited the Reasons they urged the Judgment and Sense of the Fathers they alledged are still the same in all Ages and Reigns whatever the Persons be that used them And why may we not as well believe these Men to speak truth when they did it to please their Prince and save their Livings as when they recanted it to recover them especially when we consider the Reason of their Arguments more than the design of them What they said and not why they spake it for though Men Camelion like may turn colour yet the Truth is of a better Stain than to fade at any time or upon any account The like Instance we have in the Case of the Pope's Supremacy above a general Council Aeneas Sylvius was once zealous to assert the Superiority to be in the latter and wrote the History of the Council of Basil in which he frequently proves the same But being promoted to the Papacy and changing his Name to Pius 2dus he changed his Opinion also recanting his former Positions and caused his (a) Retractationumque bullam edid it quam ad rectorem Scholam Coloniensem misit invulguri jussit toto orbe terrarum inquit Gasper Card. indisput adversus Protest Bull of Retractations to be published to the whole World Thus when the Gale of Preferment blew stiff this Weathercock soon turned head So zealous was he once for the Peace and Unity of the Church that he wrote to (b) See Acts and Monuments vol. 1. p. 807. Edit 1684. Gasper Schilck Chancelor of the Emperor that Princes might send their Orators and make Conventions whether the Pope approve of them or not But when he was Pope himself he quarrelled with Diotherus Arch-bishop of Mentz and Prince Elector because he would call the Electors together without his License Good God! if Truth be as shifting as these who highly pretend to it we may be at a greater loss than Pilate to know what it is or where to find it But whither have we run after these Dive-doppers who have the Confidence to expose and ridicule the Church which they pretended once to adore and that till Luther's days 't was a Duck under water But thank God we have lived to see them dived too and hope we shall never live to see them lift their Heads above water with the former Insult and Insolence like Spaniels to hunt and bark at that Duck which was once the only Phoenix with them and Bird of Paradice But I shall concern my self no further with them only give me leave to tell these Philosophers that 't is a known Experiment that if you cut a Leg or Limb from a Duck it in a little time corrupts into a Toad Mutato nomine de vobis fabula narratur You were once Limbs and Members of that Body under the Shadow of whose Wings you shrewded and sheltred your selves till by turning Apostates and Renegado's your decrying the Faith which once you profest you sufficiently evidenced what Poison of Asps was under your Lips and made it easie to guess from whence you were fallen and into what you were transformed Time was when the Church of England was all their cry a Dove whose Voice was sweet and Countenance was comely ready to pick and joll at every one who admired not her gay Feathers and guilded Plumes Then her Wings were covered with â—ilver and her Feathers with yellow Gold But so soon as her Wings were clipt and Feathers grew sick and was hunted like a Partridge in the Wilderness this glorious Bird was accounted no better than an Owl in the Desart at which they hist and hooted Now they renounce its Orders despise its Sacraments turn up their Noses at its Worship whilst those who were traduced by them for false Brethren and spurious Sons of the Church when all these things were in vogue with them did in the time of its peril and distress preach up and defend its Doctrine were frequent in the Administration of its Sacraments kept close to its Communion and stedfast to its Interest We hope therefore it being by the good Providence of God come again into its Kingdom and restored to all its Powers and Authority that they shall be remembred and not forgotten as Joseph was by the chief Buttler after his Restoration 40 Gen. 23. That their Yoak may be made more easie and burthen-light Nay they have not been only faithful to the Church but are true to the State too Time was when they were represented at Court as no Friends to Caesar and that it was not for the King's profit to suffer them But now their Crime is they are of excessive Loyalty and too fond of their Prince But can we love him too well who seeing the Nation sinking or in a violent Storm labouring for Life cast himself into those mighty Waters resolving either to sink with it or save it which he effectually did Who when the Breach was made in our Bank and the See of Rome I mean Popery breaking in a man upon us like Moses stood in the Gap stopt the Torrent drained the Church and hath made it once again terra firma Time was when Judgment ran down as Waters but they were very bitter and and Righteousness as a mighty Stream but like an overflowing Scourge bore down Justice and common Right before it for Judgment was turned into Gall and the Fruit of Righteousness into Wormwood which occasioned many bitter Cries and Complaints among us But now our Sion is redeemed with Judgment and her Converts with Righteousness Now we have no Youths from Doway or St. Omers to confront the Truth or support a Lye No awing of Judges packing of Juries or forcing of Verdicts We have found a Prince that seeks Judgment and relieves the oppressed and can we then be too fond can we love him too well Who by the Councel and Consent of Parliament hath eased our Protestant Brethren without the Church yea hath framed a Project to remove the Grievances of those which are within too having granted