and mutiny, as if he had said, Away with the law, and try it out with force: If these and other like particulars be true, which I have but by rumour, and cannot affirm; it is to be lamented that they should labour amongst us with so little comfort. I know restrained governments are better than remiss; and I am of his mind that said, Better is it to live where nothing is lawful, than where all things are lawful. I dislike that laws should not be continued, or disturbers be unpunished: but laws are likened to the grape, that being too much pressed yields an hard and unwholesome wine. Of these things I must say; "Ira viri non operatur justitiam Dei;" the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

As for the injuries of the other part, they be " ictus inermes;" as it were headless arrows; they be fiery and eager invectives, and, in some fond men, uncivil and irreverent behaviour towards their superiors. This last invention also, which exposeth them to derision and obloquy by libels, chargeth not, as I am persuaded, the whole side: neither doth that other, which is yet more odious, practised by the worst sort of them; which is, to call in, as it were to their aids, certain mercenary bands, which impugn bishops, and other ecclesiastical dignities, to have the spoil of their endowments and livings: of these I cannot speak too hardly. It is an intelligence between incendiaries and robbers, the one to fire the house, the other to rifle it.

The fourth point wholly pertaineth to them

which impugn the present ecclesiastical government; who although they have not cut themselves off from the body and communion of the Church, yet do they affect certain cognisances and differences, wherein they seek to correspond amongst themselves, and to be separate from others. And it is truly said, "tam sunt mores quidam schismatici, quam dogmata schismatica;" there be as well schismatical fashions as opinions. First, they have impropriated unto themselves the names of zealous, sincere, and reformed; as if all others were cold minglers of holy things and profane, and friends of abuses. Yea, be a man endued with great virtues, and fruitful in good works; yet if he concur not with them, they term him, in derogation, a civil and moral man, and com pare him to Socrates, or some heathen philosopher whereas the wisdom of the Scriptures teacheth us otherwise; namely, to judge and denominate men religious according to their works of the second table; because they of the first are often counter feit, and practised in hypocrisy. So St. John saith that " a man doth vainly boast of loving God whom he never saw, if he love not his brother whom h hath seen." And St. James saith, "This is tru religion, to visit the fatherless and the widow." S as that which is with them but philosophical an moral, is, in the apostle's phrase," true religion an Christianity." As in affection they challenge th said virtues of zeal and the rest; so in knowledg they attribute unto themselves light and perfection They say, the Church of England in King Edward

time, and in the beginning of her majesty's reign, was but in the cradle; and the bishops in those times did somewhat grope for day-break, but that maturity and fulness of light proceedeth from themselves. So Sabinius, bishop of Heraclea, a Macedonian heretic, said, that the fathers in the council of Nice were but infants and ignorant men: that the Church was not so perfect in their decrees as to refuse that farther ripeness of knowledge which time had revealed. And as they censure virtuous men by the names of civil and moral, so do they censure men truly and godly wise, who see into the vanity of their affections, by the name of politics; saying, that their wisdom is but carnal and savouring of man's brain. So likewise if a preacher preach with, ì care and meditation, I speak not of the vain scho, lastical manner of preaching, but soundly indeed, ordering the matter he handleth distinctly for memory, deducting and drawing it down for direc tion, and authorising it with strong proofs and warrants, they censure it as a form of speaking not becoming the simplicity of the gospel, and refer it to the reprehension of St. Paul, speaking of the "enticing speech of man's wisdom."

Now for their own manner of preaching, what is it? Surely they exhort well, and work compunction of mind, and bring men well to the question, "Viri, fratres, quid faciemus?" But that is not enough, except they resolve the question. They handle matters of controversy weakly, and "obiter," and as before a people that will accept of any thing. In

doctrine of manners there is little but generality and repetition. The word, the bread of life, they toss up and down, they break it not: they draw not their directions down" ad casus conscientiæ;" that a man may be warranted in his particular actions whether they be lawful or not; neither indeed are many of them able to do it, what through want of grounded knowledge, what through want of study and time. It is a compendious and easy thing to call for the observation of the sabbath-day, or to speak against unlawful gain; but what actions and works may be done upon the sabbath, and what not; and what courses of gain are lawful, and in what cases to set this down, and to clear the whole matter with good distinctions and decisions, is a matter of great knowledge and labour, and asketh much meditation and conversing in the Scriptures, and other helps which God hath provided and preserved for instruction.

Again, they carry not an equal hand in teaching the people their lawful liberty, as well as their restraints and prohibitions: but they think a man cannot go too far in that that hath a shew of a commandment.

They forget that there are sins on the right hand, as well as on the left; and that the word is double-edged, and cutteth on both sides, as well the profane transgressions as the superstitious observances. Who doubteth but that it is as unlawful to shut where God hath opened, as to open where God hath shut; to bind where God hath loosed, as to

loose where God hath bound? Amongst men it is commonly as ill taken to turn back favours, as to disobey commandments. In this kind of zeal, for example, they have pronounced generally, and without difference, all untruths unlawful; notwithstanding, that the midwives are directly reported to have been blessed for their excuse; and Rahab is said by faith to have concealed the spies; and Solomon's selected judgment proceeded upon a simulation ; and our Saviour, the more to touch the hearts of the two disciples with an holy dalliance, made as if he would have passed Emmaus. Farther, I have heard some sermons of mortification, which, I think, with very good meaning, they have preached out of their own experience and exercise, and things in private counsels not unmeet; but surely no sound conceits, much like to Parsons "Resolution," or not so good; apt to bread in men rather weak opinions and perplexed despairs, than filial and true repentance which is sought.

Another point of great inconvenience and peril, is to entitle the people to hear controversies, and all kinds of doctrine. They say no part of the counsel of God is to be suppressed, nor the people defrauded: so as the difference which the Apostle maketh between milk and strong meat is confounded: and his precept, that the weak be not admitted unto questions and controversies, taketh no place.

But most of all is to be suspected, as a seed of farther inconvenience, their manner of handling the Scriptures; for whilst they seek express Scripture