THe Gentleman our Author is pleased to spend so much Ink and Complement upon in his doubty Letter, you must sup­pose to be [...], some Man of Parts; because he tells us he hath al­ways been a devout Admirer, as well as strict Observer of his Actions, and hath constantly taken a great delight to concur with Him in his very Thoughts: And who do you guess this may be? Truly I am of the opinion he so far Apes Antoninus, as that he writes [...], and means his own dear Self in plain English: T. B. and R. L. are intended only for Blinds: [Page 2] Qui nescit dissimulare, nescit vivere: So far let him go for a Politician. What a Church-man he is, he would next in­sinuate by professing that he hath a greater kindness for our Mother of Eng­land, than for the painted Lady at Rome, or any Lecturing-Gossip of Geneva, Amster­dam, &c. But all this while he desires not to be called her Son, contenting himself to be only much her Servant, in divulging her pretended faults, and propounding Reformation-work, as if he had been Secre­tary to some Committee of plunder'd Mi­nisters in those blessed Times.

That the value of our Clergy is or hath been lessen'd, he refers to two very plain things, the Ignorance of some of them, and the Poverty of others. These are the Ia­chin and Boaz, the two Pillars or Poles on which his Aiery Castle hangs; which if we shall chance to subvert or unhinge, let the Giant that built and swaggers in't, look to himself.

(I can't forbear a scrap of the Poet now and then, though I know it troubles him vilely.)

[Page 3]Now that I may not be altogether with­out method, I shall lay down three plain Propositions, against his two plain Things, which (I doubt not) will make it as clear as any Demonstration in Euclid, that my Gentleman had better have employed his time, which lay so much upon his hands, in pilling of Straws, or catching But­terflies, than in picking of holes in a Ca­nonical Coat.

The first is this, That neither Ignorance nor Poverty do always necessarily infer contempt.

The second, That Ignorance and Po­verty are most injuriously fasten'd upon the present English Clergy.

The third, That if the English Clergy be not duly valued, but lie under some contempt, it is to be attributed to other, and those far different reasons.

And first of the first, That neither Ig­norance nor Poverty do always necessarily infer contempt. Not that I am much in love with either of them, or intend to write a Panegyrique in their Commenda­tion; but only vindicate their innocence [Page 4] so far, as to show, that admitting my Ad­versaries bold Hypothesis were true, viz. That the English Clergy is both poor and ignorant, (which we are to examine in due time) yet it would not follow that their contempt must needs be derived from those two sources: for it is well known to all that are vers'd in Things and Books bearing date a little before yesterday, that a great part of Mankind have and do still account Poverty a thing sacred, and make Ignorance the Mother of their Devotion, as well as Admiration. First, as for Igno­rance, however it may render private men inconsiderable, yet it hath no such neces­sary influence and effect on publick Per­sons, (bating me that mortal sin of a School-distinction) whose reputation and esteem is not ever built upon, or preserv'd by their Learning and Knowledge, but sometimes to be attributed purely to the dignity of their Rank and Place. Though the Mayor of the Town be but a Thatcher, and guilty of so little Scholarship, that he goes about to read his Commission with the wrong end upwards; yet by vertue of his Gown, Mace, and other Ensigns of Power and Government, he shall com­mand [Page 5] an awe and respect from all the Neighbourhood under his Jurisdiction: And 'tis neither necessary nor true de fa­cto, that all Princes prove as Learned as Moses, or as Wise as Solomon: some have had such ordinary natural or acquired per­sonal abilities, that they have been fain to leave the management of their Affairs wholly to the Wisdom of their Councils: yet all this while their Subjects have not withheld due Honour and Obedience from them, since their sacred Function and So­vereign Authority are of themselves suffi­cient Guards to the Imperial Crown. Where the word of a King is, there is Power, (saith Solomon) whether, like some Alexander, he is wont to sleep with Homer, or Plato under his Pillow, or spend his most serious hours, with Domitian, in that malancholique employment of catch­ing and stabbing of Flies. Now although Moses (by reason of the advantage of his Education, as he was the reputed Son of Pharaoh's Daughter) was learned in all the Wisdom of the Egyptians; yet we no where read that Aaron was any great Scholar, but only capacitated to be a Mouth to Moses, whilst Moses was to him [Page 6] in stead of God: And that he and his Po­sterity (upon whom that Priesthood was entail'd) were had in great honour by the People, is to be attributed to their stu­pendiously solemn Consecration, their rich Attire, and distinguishing Vestments, their Mitres and holy Crowns, and their sacred Vnction, design'd on purpose to beget and maintain a venerable esteem of them in Mens Minds, together with Gods express command they should not be evil spoken of, Exod. 22.28. and his severe Judg­ments upon such as did not respect their persons, Lam. 4.16. And I appeal to the whole Series of the Jewish Dispensation, whether those Priests must needs be all profound Doctors and Rabbies, whose bu­siness was to rive Oxen, (not Texts) blow Trumpets, offer Incense, and the like: here was no need of quick Parts, ample Faculties, or much-acquired Knowledge; and yet their Ministry and Persons (for their Orders sake) were never suspected of contempt. Again, if it were worth the while to rake in the Dunghil of Pagan I­dolatry, it would easily appear what igno­rant and stupid Wretches their Priests ge­nerally were, and yet had the People in [Page 7] great awe. Not to insist upon the sal­vage, obscene, and villanous Rites of the more barbarous Nations; their sacrificing Men and Children to the Devil, and worshipping all manner of things for Dei­ties, excepting only the true God that made the World; I shall only note in transitu how things stood with the Ro­mans who pretended to be the civilized People: for whatever Pliny boasts to the contrary, their hands also were frequent­ly dipp'd in Humane Blood, as Tertullian and Lactantius have observed; and their Superstitions were as nonsensically ridicu­lous, as numerous. And however their Priests by the Devils delusions seem'd to presage future evens from the Entrails of Beasts, flight of Birds, and the like; yet they were not requir'd to be any great Conjurers at Learning: all the Accom­plishments their Curiones, Augures, Fla­mines, Pontifices, Salii, Aruspices, and the rest of their Orders pretended to, were only such as these, That they were of Bo­dy unmaimed, legal Years, could butcher and dress a Bullock, and it may be dance handsomly, and sing indifferently, and eat well; a steady Hand, an acute Knife, [Page 8] agile Body, and wide Throat, were then mighty Breeding: And a little Education qualified their Vestal Virgins to trim up a Lamp, and worship the Palladium, and those Penates said to be brought from Troy for a lucky Pawn of the lastingness of their Empire. So far was Ignorance from breeding contempt, that the Politici­ans in those days seem to me to use it as the great mean to preserve the respect of all their Religious Rites and Persons also. They knew the Vulgar do more earnestly admire little things and devices hid from them, thinking some great vertue or my­stery couched under whatsoever they un­derstand not. And he that hath but half an eye may see, that Rome Christian (who will needs be Sovereign Lady of the Reli­gious, as her old Grandame was of the Heathen World) proceeds upon the very same principle, having established Igno­rance by a Law, and requiring Mass to be said constantly in an unknown Tongue; unknown, I say, as well to the Priest who reads it oftentimes, as to the People that hear it. What mean all their fictitious Reliques, those many Loads of Timber, (as they would make) said to be pieces [Page 9] of our Saviour's Cross; the infinite num­ber of forged Nails, vended for those that pierced his Hands and Feet; Iohn Baptist's Head preserv'd miraculously in two or three several places; Ioseph's Humm, the Virgin Mary's Milk? &c. These and a thousand such little Inventions, and Le­gendary Tales, as they are undeniable Ar­guments of a Catholick stupidity amongst them, so they were never intended to ex­pose their Clergy, who are believ'd to work new Miracles every day by a care­ful application and management of the old.

Lastly, To look a little more home­wards: We are none of us such Fools, but our Mistriss Experience may inform us, that the most rude and illiterate Men have sometimes been admired and followed by the multitude, as the only powerful and heavenly Preachers, whilst in the interim a wise and very learned Clergy hath been despised, ejected, and put to silence under pretence of Insufficiency. What Parts or Learning were those Mountebank Divines guilty of in the late times of Rebellion, who yet made a shift to Preach almost all England out of their Wits? Were not [Page 10] Confidence, and Ignorance, antique Ge­stures, piteous Faces, canting Phrases, and earnest Tautologies, all the Rhetorick most of them pretended to? Did they not dawb miserably with untempered Mortar? and in stead of St. Paul's [...], (rightly dividing) did they not mangle and tear the good Word of God, and jum­ble and dash the sacred Texts, those Orient Pearls, so rudely one against another, till all were broke in pieces? Did they not give Glasses at random, and make false Consequences without fear or wit, often laying the whole weight of the Story upon some slender Circumstance, as that Dives went to Hell because he was Rich, and the like? Yet these were the only Boanerges in those days, who like a Land-stood car­ried all before them. Populus aliquando vult decipi, especially when Authority (though but usurped) favours the design: For had they enquired into the Cheat, they might easily have discover'd that many of these painful Bawlers were no more Scho­lars than those Geese which sav'd the Ca­pitol.

Then how egregiously is our wise Cler­gy-mender mistaken here in one moiety [Page 11] of his Hypothesis? Alas! Ignorance is so far from exposing a publick Person, that (allowing him Power and Authority with it) it is the only way to rear and ad­vance his esteem amongst the generality of Mankind, who are themselves unlearned; and if the Preachers great business be to influence and engage the Peoples affecti­ons for that end, he must be sure to med­dle with none but Thimble and Bodkin Di­vinity, he must renounce his vain Philoso­phy, he must beware of all Carnal, though never such Rational Discourses; take all his Books and burn them, (there is a pri­vate Text for that, Act. 19.) and teach wholly by the Spirit, and then his business is done, Never man spake like this man.

Secondly, That Contempt was ever Po­verties fatal Handmaid, is one Doctor's judgment indeed; but if he be found sin­gular, what if he should talk rather like an Apothecary in that too? Surely the in­telligent part of Mankind don't use to judge of things by their gaudy outside, to esteem the Horse by his Trappings, the Ass by his burden, or the Mans Worth by his Wealth. Quantum quisque suâ nummo­rum — is onely a mistake of the se­duced [Page 12] Vulgar: And that end of Latine borrowed of a certain Satyrist,

amounts to no more than this, that Pover­ty (abstractly consider'd without all in­trinsick Worth and Parts) makes men ri­diculous amongst flouting Heathen: (for 'tis well known that the Principles of Christianity oblige us to make such Men objects rather of our Pity and Charity:) for even the sober Heathen had brains e­nough to distinguish between a Philoso­pher and an Idiot, a good Man and a bad; and none but Fools amongst them were wont to put the Man into one Scale, and the Money into the other, and thereby guess at his just price. You don't find any of their Learned Deifying Money, but all unanimously declaiming against it, as an old Enemy of Vertue, by Mens abuse, as Euripides complains, [...] Pythagoras in his Golden Precepts recommends not Gold to his Disciples, but pure beaten Ver­tue, and a moderation of all extravagant [Page 13] Passions. And I remember a great Pro­ficient in Epicurus his School, (if yet he was not more his own Master) doth not only, like an arch Wag, laugh at all the rest of the vulgar Deities, but professedly lashes the blind God of Wealth (as if he were a blind Bear) through many of his Dialogues, especially that ycleped Timon, where he tells you, that Pride, Ostenta­tion, Effeminacy, Violence and Fraud, do ever crowd in at the door with Plutus, whereas Labour, Wisdom, Temperance, Fortitude, and a world of other Vertues, are wont to march under the Conduct of Poverty. Amongst the various Sects of Philosophers, only the Peripateticks seem to have a kindness for Money, as one ne­cessary ingredient for making up the Golden Calf of their Summum Bonum: the rest generally declare against it, and value a Philosopher in his thread-bare Cloak, or Cynical Tub, above Croesus and Midas, those gingling Pack-horses, or Alexander that prodigious Robber, with all his spoils. The Stoicks in particular profess themselves Volunteers for Poverty, and speak more sense (whether dissembling or in earnest, is not a half-penny matter) to render Ri­ches [Page 14] contemptible, than some body else can do Poverty, with all the artifices he has. In a word, a man might be honest, vertuous and wise in those days, though he was not Master of both the Indies: nay, such an one, though brought to his shifts by Tyranny or Chance, and forc'd to the servile office of drawing water meerly to get bread, should be gladly receiv'd, and easily believ'd by the best of Men.

But we need not stand to the verdict of these Ethnick Oracles only, since Christs own Jury of Life and Death, his Apostles, have given it against our Adversaries false Indictment: St. Peter, their Fore-man, speaks the sense of all the rest, (excepting only Iudas, who for his love of Mam­mon amongst other reasons fell from his place) Silver and Gold have I none. The Kingdom Christ claimed was purely spi­ritual, and that old Sophisters large offer not likely therefore to succeed, when he said, All these will I give thee, &c. He re­quir'd the first Promulgers of his Gospel, to forsake all when they followed him, to carry neither purse nor scrip in their jour­ney, that the World might be convinced he stood not in need of any common helps [Page 15] and artifices to plant his holy Religion, and perswade Men to embrace it: for the more low and improbable means and in­struments are, the more admirable certain­ly is the effect: it made the arrogant Greeks themselves pluck in their horns, when they met with [...], a poor Mechanick beating them at their own Weapon; that a parcel of mean illiterate Fisher-men, and such like, should reform a debauched World, and plant the Christian Faith in all Nations, is argu­ment enough that the Hand of God was in all this, who works his Will to the more advantage sometimes by balking the assistance of the Rich and Learned: And though when the Church was under per­secution, those primitive Christians laid all their Estates at the Apostles feet; yet they employed them wholly for the Chur­ches publick use, and are not believ'd to have lick'd their fingers, and enrich'd themselves thereby. I never heard that St. Peter himself left one penny stock in his pretended Successours Coffer.

'Tis true indeed, since the World is come into the Church, and Kings have embraced and undertaken to defend the [Page 16] Faith, the face of things is most reasonably alter'd, and a competent Patrimony set­led upon the Church in general: That of Rome in particular is pretty well to live, as we say, for matter of maintenance, and many of her Grandees may possibly keep up their Reputation by their vast Wealth, and outward Splendour: but yet every body knows, that several of their Religious Orders are professed Mendi­eants, and sworn Votaries to Poverty; and these are so far from being laugh'd at, that they are had in mighty reverence and su­perlative admiration by all of that Belief. Nor do I see that accidental must needs make a Clerick ridiculous, more than wil­ful Poverty; nay, without all peradven­ture, the former deserves most to be piti­ed, as being sometimes many an honest Mans inevitable doom, as well as Iob's and Lazarus's, whilst the latter is of meer affectation, and superstitious choice.

And therefore I would intreat our wise Author to suppose a thing that may be for once, for you see he is very prodigal of Hypotheses that may not be. Suppose a Church under the persecution of Rebels, and sacrilegious Usurpers, where the rich [Page 17] and fattest Parsons are found the greatest Delinquents, plunder'd, sequester'd, and brought to want of bread, having no Cloaths almost left to their backs, except­ing only a Stone-Doublet; imagine, I say, they are confined like St. Paul, and have no other work but to convert Iaylors, sing Psalms with their feet in the Stocks, and preach to the Spirits in prison: if these learned and sacred Persons be deemed the [...] of the World by an uncircumcised Crew of Miscreants, whose fault is that? Neither their Poverty, nor Exile, nor all their sufferings, impair their Reputation amongst sober, religious, and loyal Per­sons, who rather admire and applaud their resolved Fidelity to God and the King, let Men and Devils do their worst. Benè fa­cere & malè audire Regium est: the dirt and reproaches cast upon them by foul-mouth'd Men, rebounds all upon them­selves; their unjust slanders are our high­est honour, their detractions add to our esteem; the blots and false aspersions they cast upon our good names, do but, as so many spots, set off their beauty: indeed, if Cato, if Laelius, if the Scipio's should contemn and defame me, (saith Seneca) I [Page 18] should be moved; but let the Rabble say what they will: Mean while, 'twere strange to say these worthy Men were thus despis'd and handled because they were poor, whereas the contrary is most mani­fest; their fair Revenues, Lands and Dig­nities, the Gold and Silver Vessels of the Temple, &c. were the undoubted baits that tempted the avarice of Men sacrile­giously disposed, to fall foully and falsly upon their Reputation.

Now from the Premises, every Novice in Logick may infer, that the Ignorance of a Clergy-man doth not necessarily ren­der him contemptible with the vulgar, nor his Poverty amongst the wise and learned; and consequently that my first Proposition is true.

But what if it be? will he say; if the second be false, you are but where I left you. Not so neither, under favour, I conceive a little ground is gained of him (more perhaps than he can allow the Vicar for his Glebe) thereby: for if publick Persons are not always, nay very seldom, contemptible for their own either Igno­rance or Poverty, then there is some way made for my third Proposition, which will [Page 19] be sure to meet with him at the long run, and inform him, that if our present Cler­gy want an inch of that respect due to their Function, it is to be attributed to far different reasons, and neither of those two upon which he hath founded his pret­ty little Church-History.

But what his modesty supposeth and granteth to make himself merry, I shall take the boldness to deny, and maintain the contrary; which is my second Pro­position, ‘That Ignorance and Poverty are most in­juriously fasten'd upon the present Eng­lish Clergy.’

In order to the clearing hereof, it must be first stated how far we are agreed, and wherein we differ; and then I shall leave it to impartial Readers to believe and judge who hath greatest reason and truth of his side.

We are agreed in the first place (I pre­sume) whom we mean by the present Eng­lish Clergy, viz. such Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, as are now (or were at least a­bout last Michaelmas-Term) actually pre­ferr'd [Page 20] in the Church of England. So that we exclude first, all that having sometime been of our Clergy, are since dead, and so cannot de jure render such as are now a­live contemptible: for what is that to me, if my Predecessour forty or fifty years ago could not say his Commandments, or tell how many Apostles our Lord had, or that he baited a white Bear now and then in his Sermons, or talk'd beside the Cushion? There's not the same reason for Preaching sure, as for Original Sin, that it should be entail'd upon all Posterity; and yet our Author is so ingenuous as to produce in­stances before he was born (the truth whereof might perhaps be question'd too) to serve his present purpose, as you shall see anon.

Secondly, we exclude also all the Non-conforming Brethren, of what Sect or Par­ty soever, who have indeed excluded themselves to our hands, by departing schismatically from our Communion. We intend not to answer for their ridiculous extravagancies in the Pulpit, more than their other faults: for what do their gross abuses of Preaching concern the Orthodox Clergy, who abhor to tread in their steps? [Page 21] Men may as well charge upon us the old Monk's Proof of a plurality of Worlds, from that Text, St. Luke 17.17. Annon decem facti sunt mundi? or the ignorance of those two other Disputants, who ha­ving resolved that ten thousand Spirits might dance upon a Needles point, could not determine where the Piper must stand all this while. Yet this will be found too some bodies close way of reasoning; some factious Separatists have used foolish Phrases and childish Metaphors in their Preachments, ergo, the English Clergy is Ignorant.

Secondly, We are agreed further against the brain-sick Catharists conceit, and ex­pect not to see a Clergy made up all of Saints and Worthies. It is suppos'd on both sides▪ that every Vicar is not oblig'd to be as rich as the Vicar of Rome; and that two or three in a County may be connived at, although they be not altogether as learned as Saint Augustine. We know full well that there is no Profession in Na­ture wherein all are improved to the same Perfection: There was, and always will be an Ignoramus or two amongst the Law­yers, some Quacks and Empiricks amongst [Page 22] Physitians, some Idiots in the Schools of Philosophers, and Dunces in the number of pretended Scholars, some poor Gentry a­midst the rich, to make up the Harmony of things; and that it were a downright piece of Sophistry to condemn any whole Profession and Order of Men, for the igno­rance, mistakes, and absurdities of some few Individuals thereunto belonging. Thus far I must hold my Gentleman's Nose to the Grind-stone, and make him agreed whether he will or no; for otherwise he fights with his own shadow, and fathers faults upon the Clergy, which are either committed by those who are not of that rank, or are not a sufficient number to make a denomination.

So that the great difference or Ball of contention between us, is, Whether the generality, or at least a great part of our present English Clergy deserve the brands of poor and ignorant, or not? He does not only take it for granted all along, but expresly affirms it, and that with a Wit­ness, pag. 81. (as if the Lord's Lot were a meer Lottery, wherein there are an hun­dred Blanks for one Prize) but my se­cond Proposition doth with as much [Page 23] Confidence and more Reason deny it.

First, As for Ignorance, I blush for him, to think he could find no where to fasten that, but upon one of the most learned Churches in the World; which as it hath always been able to deal with the formi­dable Roman Giants on the one hand, and those undermining Separatists on the o­ther, (for Papist and Puritan, like Samp­son's Foxes, though looking and running two several ways, yet are ever joyn'd to­gether in the Tail) so I am bold to say, it is now more plentifully furnisht with Men of singular Worth, universal Knowledge, and great Clerks, than ever it has been since the Reformation.

Now although he can expect but little favour from me, yet I will do him the ju­stice to believe he never intended to bring our Reverend Prelates into his Indictment, nor yet the worthy Deans, and other Dig­nitaries in the Church, Men generally of known Abilities, some of whose Works do not only praise them in the Gates, but are also famous throughout the World. Nor do I think him so ingrateful to our Vni­versities, as to deny that they now flourish more than heretofore with all sorts of [Page 24] good Literature, very learned Men, and accurate Preachers. Nor do I believe he aims at the City, since they are fully satis­fied in the Labours of their Pastours, un­less they quarrel them sometimes for their too much Humane Learning, Reason, and Morality, as being hard words many of them were not brought up to. No, the Ignorance he upbraids us with, must be a­mongst us in the Country, or no where. Now it is not probable there should be many Dunces amongst the Parsons, consi­dering they hold their Benefices either from the Broad Seal, (for obtaining which 'twere great rashness to think they give not as ample Testimony of their Parts, as a Man must do for his Truth and Honesty be­fore he can procure an ordinary Brief) or from some Spiritual or Temporal Lord, (and it were somewhat sawcy to think ei­ther of them keeps a Fool for his Chaplain) or some Collegiate Society, (and 'twere as strange they should search all about for an Hocus, when they have so many good Scho­lars at home unemployed, and fit to pre­sent) or some Civil Incorporation or Com­pany, (and they are not so easily bribed, but will have their choice of several per­sons [Page 25] all of good note) or lastly, from some private Patron; and there lies all the dan­ger, lest he having an Oak Tree, or good Horse to sell, should close with his best Chapman, and require no more Latine skill in his Clerk, than to render [Quan­tum dabis?] into current English Money. But I hope such sordid practices are very rare; I'm sure 'tis below the Spirit of a true English Gentleman, (who can sacri­fice his whole Estate to serve his King and Church) to stoop to such a pitiful Bribe or Bargain, forgetting Honour and Con­science both at once: Besides, if any that wear that Name be so far degenerated, as to expose a Benefice to Sale; yet where is that bold Son of Simon, who shall dare to be the Buyer? He must be a prodigious Sot indeed, who will pawn his own Soul, by living in a continued perjury, to be put into a capacity of saving other mens: So improbable it is there should be many ig­norant Parsons. And if I may guess at other Diocesses by this, I must tell our pragmatical Author, that I know very few Parsons who will turn their backs of him in any solid piece of old Learning, many of them being aware of his new Philoso­phy too.

[Page 26]But the whole strain of his Book tells us, he aims at a cowardly triumph over the little Vicars and Curates, though he is not likely to have his end of them neither. One of them has answer'd him already, (but that he was so civil to his old Ac­quaintance, as to be too too free and pro­digal in his Concessions) and, for ought he shall ever know the contrary, I may be another.

As for the Vicars and Curates in Cities and Corporations, (which make a conside­rable part of the Nation) himself grants they are mostly very learned and judicious persons: but then he tells us a piece of worshipful News, that Christ came not to save Mayors and Aldermen, and Merchants only, but Country-people also, whereby he requires me to follow him into the Vil­lages, to find out that Ignorance we are Nosed withal, and hitherto are at a loss for. And the truth is, I have made it more my business than ever he hath done, to enquire into these Men of a low Church-Dispensation, (as we must phrase it) and will maintain it against him or any other, be he never so confidently ingenious, that many of them are Men of very consi­derable [Page 27] Worth, and want nothing but a little of his boldness to shew their Parts, and a Friend at Court to provide them of good Benefices. The generality of them (though perhaps they aspire not to be made the Kings Professours, nor can split the hair exactly in determining the five Points, or confuting Transubstantiation, yet) are very sufficiently qualified for the discharge of their Cures. Nay, there's scarce any amongst 'um all, but preacheth once every Sunday, and that with good gravity, honest sobriety, and to take sa­tisfaction of his Parishioners; and if there be here and there one less knowing than others, you shall be sure to find him at it twice a day, Bishop Andrew's his old Rule being worn out in some places, viz. He that preaches twice every Sunday, usually prates once. In a word, if upon due exa­mination our Author had found but ten men of worth amongst all the Vicars of England, had he been a merciful Chasti­ser, he might have found out a very good Precedent, to have spared the rest for their sakes: But since he writes at random of Men he hath never studied, and hath ta­ken so much pains to impose upon the [Page 28] World, with a parcel of prodigious Whis­kers dress'd a la mode, since we defie him to pick out Ten amongst us all who have not Learning enough to discharge our places, let him hereafter keep his Igno­rance to himself, for it belongs to very few of our Profession.

Nor is he much more ingenuous in re­presenting the Poverty of our inferiour Clergy, (for them alone he must mean) by making it far more extream and despe­rate than in truth it is. For if any man hath such a miraculous Faith, as to take his word, rather than believe his own eyes, he must needs fancy them a compa­ny of sneaking Mendicant Friars, who live from hand to mouth, who are pincht with want of the common necessaries of life, and spend all their days in studying only to stave off those two troublesom Creditors, the Back and Belly.

Indeed it must be confessed that the Church of England is not now so rich, fat, and well-liking, as she was in diebus illis his days, and consequently not able to settle such plentiful Portions upon her younger Children as she would: for she lost a considerable Collop by the Pope, [Page 29] (however our Author is so civil to the old Gentleman, as not to mention him) who laid a fair foundation of Sacrilege, by im­propriating 3845. of the 9284. Parishes then in England, as Doctor Basire notes out of Cambden. And when she had somewhat pick'd up her crumbs again, by the accession of new Revenues, King Hen­ry the Eighth knowing as infallibly as the Pope himself, that the Church-Lands were very good Lands, could not forbear wri­ting after his Holiness's Copy, but gave her such a tearing Purge, that she hath never recover'd her Complexion since. Not to mention how far Queen Eliz. did patri­zare, thanks be to God our Vicarages are not all so poor as they left them; for, how­ever our Author's memory fails him a­gain, he speaks not a syllable of any late Augmentations: No, he never heard that our Reverend Bishops, and Deans, and Chapters, have (by the gracious Intima­tion, and to the eternal Honour of His present Majesty) competently augmented most, if not all the small Vicarages belong­ing to them respectively. And now I have told him, it would be a good jest in­deed if he should write an effectual piece [Page 30] to make the Sky fall; I mean, to perswade all other Impropriation-mongers to fol­low so good an Example, and bring them to some satisfaction however, for I de­spair he should ever win them to refund the whole, and make us all Parsons again, although it be a grievance to our Consci­ences, that Vicarages and Sacrilege came first into England together from Rome, and in the same Cloak-bag; and besides, Experience tells us, that Church-Lands (like the Ark of God amongst the Phili­stims) have been but a plague to the Fa­milies, and a canker in the Estates of their Purchasers, as saith the Heathen Prophet, —Vix gaudet tertius Haeres.

Now though we dare not be so bold as to say with my Lord Bacon, that all Par­liaments since the 27 and 31 of King Hen­ry the Eighth, stand obliged to God in Conscience to reduce the Patrimony of the Church, (to which he adds, that since they have debarred Christs Spouse of a great part of her Dowry, it were reason they made her a competent Ioynture) yet thus much we dare boldly say, that our graci­ous Sovereign and this present Parliament have already given a signal earnest of their [Page 31] pious intentions, by restoring that part of the Churches Patrimony which was bought and sold by those unhallowed Rumpers; and our little Historian was unworthy to mention that Noble Act, (reserved for some great Hand to record it) for which their Names shall be had in everlasting re­membrance.

In the mean time, those Vicars whose Incomes are but small as yet, content themselves to make a Vertue of Necessity, and cut their Coat according to their Cloth. Enough sometimes is as good as a Feast, and a Dinner of Herbs is more pleasant and acceptable to some, than a stalled Ox attended with all varieties is to others. Not one of an hundred of the Clergy but is as well provided for as those the Poet cries up for the happy Men, Queis Deus parcâ dedit quod satis est manu. In­deed I have oft admir'd to observe how contentedly, yea, how plentifully several of them live upon a little; and though I have imputed it somewhat to their own prudence, frugality, temperance, and cut­ting off many artificial necessities others create to themselves; yet I could not but call to mind the Widows Cruise of Oyl; and [Page 32] Barrel of Meal that never consumed while they were feeding a Prophet, and almost fancied God gave them Blessings other Men know not of, and made some secret addition to their store: Nay, I have known some of them grow insensibly into the number of the Rich, whilst many of their Neighbours have (by their own impru­dence, or some unlucky accident) lived to bury fair Estates before them, and left nothing when they died but a Wife per­haps, and five or six pretty Children; by way of Legacy to the Parish. However, admitting they steer but Agur's middle course between the two extreams all their lives, it is sufficient for my present pur­pose; and I have reason to conclude, that Poverty as well as Ignorance is most injuri­ously attributed to the generality of our present English Clergy, Quod erat demon­strandum.

Now though I am not obliged to take any notice of the Gentleman's whole sub­sequent Discourse, because it is built upon a false foundation, viz. A pair of Princi­ples of his own forging; yet for diversi­ons sake, we'll give him his Hypothesis for once, provided he never ask it more, to [Page 33] see what work he makes on't: we'll allow him to stand in the Air with Archimedes, only to see what Knacks and Feats of Activity he is dexterous at.

When he hath told us with much mo­desty, that the generality of our Clergy are Fools and Beggars, parti per pale, he proceeds to give us a reasonable accompt both of their Ignorance and Poverty.

A great part of their pretended Igno­rance, he lays upon the old-fashion'd me­thods and discipline of Schooling, to assure us he is a well-wisher to some new Model, he knows not what, but is content at pre­sent to be only so far a Regulator, as to mention some very mischievous abuses of Youth in common Schools, which I shall enquire into by and by: for it were not amiss to inform him by the way, that all Men are not of the Fanatick Skip-Iack's mind, for new Models and Methods, (more than for new Moons, and new Gods) provided the old have been found by long experience neither uncertain nor ineffectual. [...] says plodding Aristotle, and 'tis as true as if Cartes himself had said it, That changing foundations is oftentimes of dangerous [Page 34] consequence. Historians do but laugh at the mighty devices of projecting Nero, to cut a Channel from the Lake Avernus, to the mouth of Tiber, and pierce the massy Ithmus in Achaia, as vain attempts to shor­ten Voyages, and (as it were) cross the Sea by Land. Thus Nicanor Seleucus went about to cut the Streight between the Euxine and Caspian Seas; and Cleopatra, Camer. Medit. that which divideth the Red Sea from Egypt: yet none of them brought their de­sign to effect, but only made themselves ridiculous, for Men were still fain to go the old way. And truly the device of training up Boys after a new method, may be ingenious and plausible in the Theory, but perhaps not so practicable and success­ful as the old. Good Counsels have oft­times bad events; and all Reformers ought to reflect upon that famous Axiom of the Schools, Bonum ex causâ integrâ, Malum ex quolibet defectu, so far, as to remem­ber, that all circumstances must concur to make the Model compleat, since one con­siderable defect or mistake in Ichnography, mars the whole project: Old Methods may have their imperfections and super­fluities, [Page 35] but yet it argues no great wisdom to abandom them for any new ones sus­pected to be guilty of as many more. I now proceed to consider the abuses our Author observes in the old received way of School-Education.

The first is, That Boys are kept in pure slavery to Latine and Greek words, till 16 or 17 years of age: so that if you will believe him, Rider's Dictionary and Scapula's Lexicon are the only Books they do, or at least need converse with for that purpose. To remedy this abuse, (which yet is of his own making) he starts the fancy of putting them upon English Au­thors: that doubtless would be as pleasing as Tityrus's Apples and Nuts to them who are naturally inclin'd to ease and idleness, but would not so well satisfie their Pa­rents, who send them to School chiefly to learn Amo's and [...]'s, for so we are taught to call the Greek and Latine Tongues. But that they should fall upon Geometry and Philosophical Discourses for that end, rather than Homer, Virgil, Tully, &c. is such a monster, as the teeming Af­frica ne'er brought forth the fellow of it: 'twere [...] indeed, to put Boys [Page 36] upon puzzling their tender Brains about crabbed Theories, and knotty Problems, such as grown Men of the profoundest judgments can scarcely fathom or under­stand; as if Hercules's Shoes would fit a Dwarf, as if Lambs could wade where E­lephants are forc'd to swim, and every little Philistim could play at Quarter-staff with Goliah's Beam.

There is indeed a sort of Philosophy, which, as it was calculated for the nonage of the World, so it is still best accommo­dated and suited to younger Capacities, I mean, Poetry, the old Philosophy of all, flourishing many Ages before Aristotle was born. So M. Tyrius calls it in one of his Sermons, (and he was a pretty good Preacher for a Moral Man) [...]; &c. Arts and Sciences were then in their infancy, and their way of teaching was not to tell downright truth, reason home and bluntly, and make irresistable Demonstrations; but to insi­nuate Vertue and Knowledge by merry Tales, and innocent Fictions; and if I mistake not, they borrowed that mode, as many other things, from the Hebrews, [Page 37] who used then to be instructed about high and heavenly matters by Types and Sha­dows taken from below. Now give me leave to show our Author the difference even in his own story of Phaeton, which he imagines to be so tedious to Boys: but that's his errour, they naturally love sto­ries; and though they have not capacity enough to understand a Logical Definition of Rashness, and conceive a clear notion of Presumption; yet they will easily ap­prehend the moral of that Fable, and tell you the Young Man had better have taken his Fathers disswasive, — (non est mor­tale quod optas) and that none but Fools will venture on difficult Tasks they are not able to manage; and consequently I infer, that to put Boys upon the most sub­lime and solid parts of Learning, were to make them hazard Phaeton's destiny, i. e. breaking the neck of all their parts: so that let him be as singularly wise as he will, and spend his breath in vain, which might have better served to cool his Chic­ken-broth, the Books ordinarily read in Schools, will still be found most proper for Boys, in order to their gaining those two famous Languages, and sowing the [Page 38] seeds of Knowledge in their Minds.

Another abuse of Youth, and loss of time, he reckons the Homerick rumblers, and large Repetitions of other Authors appointed sometimes for their Break-fasts, which he will have to be as dreadful to them as an old Parliament-Fast, (an odd similitude by the way; and had the Par­son used it, 'twould have been laught at sufficiently; for let the World judge if any Text in the Bible be not more like an ingenious Picture, than a Break-fast is like a Fast) whereas indeed they are not tire­som to any but Dolts and unhewen Block­heads, who are never likely to be fashion'd into Mercuries. Now if he alone be ig­norant that this practise of common Schools is not only pardonable, but of very excellent use, who can help it? Eve­ry body else knows, that Children have a moist and supple Brain, like soft Wax, capable of any impressions, and that Me­mory is the most early faculty of the Soul, which exerts it self in the very dawning of Sense and Cogitation, (whereupon Pla­to calls it the Mother of the Muses) and is in its prime and meridian vigour before Imagination or Fancy, much less Vnder­standing [Page 39] and Judgment, come perfectly to them; these requiring a much different, if not quite contrary temperature: And common experience tells us, that we re­member nothing so firmly and lastingly as what we did and learnt in our younger years; and that Grammar and Languages are gotten chiefly by Memory, and there­fore more easily attained by Boys than grown Men. The learned Spaniard in his Trial of Wits, observes very well, that if a Biscain of thirty or forty years old come to dwell in Castile, he will never master and speak that Language cleverly; where­as if he comes a Boy, he grows such a pro­ficient thereat in two or three years, that one would swear he was born in Toledo. If Memory therefore be the first and princi­pal faculty to be improv'd for gaining Languages, it was capriciously done to blame the custom of common Schools for what they ought rather to be commend­ed, viz. as well for exercising a Lad's memory often in the general, as for com­mitting high and brave-sens'd Poems to it in particular, since out of that, as the com­mon Store-house, the Fancy is afterwards enrich'd and raised to an aptitude for Elo­quence [Page 40] and Poetry, and the Iudgment also by degrees comes acquainted with the na­ture of things, be they never such high Moralities.

Nor do I know any such silly Academicks as he describes, who upon reading Tully's Offices, and the best Poets over again at their maturer years, do not take double delight and satisfaction to one that never saw them before.

As for that Objection in the close of his Paedagogical abuses, I suppose it was started more to dally and play with, than to answer: for it is most true still, that all mischiefs and faults in Schooling refer as well to other learned Professions, as to the Clergy, and it neither is by him, nor can be made out by all the Logicks in Europe, how it should come to pass that the very same method of Schooling daily produces more learned Lawyers, more eminent Phy­sitians, and yet more ignorant Divines than ever.

The next complaint he makes, is of the inconsiderate sending all sorts of Lads to the Vniversity; which because it is the first truth he hath yet spoken, I shall be so ci­vil as to grant it, (not absolutely, and for [Page 41] his sake, but) upon condition I be allow­ed to interpose some Remarks and Ani­madversions upon his Discourse there­of.

Doubtless Socrates was in the right, that, as his Mother, though an expert Midwife, could not deliver a Woman who was not with Child; so neither could her Son make his Scholars bring forth any Sci­ence, unless they had understanding to conceive it. And Cicero might have been so wise as to have examined his Son Mark's Parts before he sent him to Athens: for albeit he committed him to an able Tu­tour Cratippus his care; yet the Lad pro­ved but a Cods-head, and the Oratour was forc'd to confess at last, that resisting Na­ture was but like the Giants fighting a­gainst the Gods. Galen's Father was bet­ter advised when he put him upon the stu­dy of Physick, perceiving he had a singu­lar wit and inclination for that Science; though Lucian's Parents again were as much out, who concluded by the Bulls, Horses, and Men of Wax he delighted to make in his Childhood, his Genius more suited with being a Statuary, than a Phi­losopher. However, it is a truth generally [Page 42] confess'd, that Lads ought to have Parts and Capacities for those Professions to which they are respectively designed. What if a Borish Parent be so partial or ig­norant, as to think his great Head is an infallible sign the Boy will make a sound Philosopher, or able Theologue? Other Men know, that the biggest Oranges have the hardest and thickest Sculls, and afford the least quantity of Juice: And what if a fond Mother, by the advice of the small Pedant at the sign of the very same little House by the Church-yard-side, be resolved to make her Zon Dick a Scholard, (of all the rest?) Certainly Tutours are neither bound to work Miracles, nor yet to accept of Hobson's choice: for (whatever is sug­gested to the contrary) I have known divers returned by the next Carrier, as in­sufficient, to the place of Execution from whence they came. But all this while let Examinations in the University be never so strict, some will prove Dunces to the Worlds end, through their idleness, mis­placing their Studies, or decay of their Parts, and others be rejected who might have prov'd Miracles of the Age, though at present they seemed to be of slow and [Page 43] heavy Parts: for we have no infallible Standard whereby to know assuredly this Lad will, and that other can never make a Scholar.

My Spanish Author (honest Iohn Hu­arte, who seems to be as well skill'd in this affair as my English one, yea, as T. B. and R. L. put together) tells it me for a very truth, that there is sometimes a cer­tain dulness in Children, which argues a greater wit in another age; and some Boys of quick Parts, and a ready Ingeny, like Summer-fruits, have flagg'd and wither'd in a short space, and according to the Pro­verb, Soon ripe, soon rotten, prov'd very ordinary and dull Men. And therefore I cannot but commend and recommend the practise of the Iesuites in this, who make not a rash judgment of Children's facul­ties whilst they are conning their first Ele­ments, but stay till they come to years of discretion, and then make a close enquiry what they are, and which way their Parts lie, whether to Poetry, Physick, Oratory, History, Mathematicks, Law or Divinity; and then, by confining them to that par­ticular Study, bring them to a considerable perfection therein, whilst others gargling [Page 44] all manner of Books that come next, con­tent themselves with a smattering of all kinds of Learning, but prove excellent in none. To sum up this particular, it ap­pears by the premises, that though we may be sometimes deceived in guessing at a Lads parts, yet most certainly those Pa­rents and Grammaticasters are blame-wor­thy, who pitch upon the most unlikely of all the number for the Scholar; and Vni­versities, are not much more to be excused if they receive such an one upon their re­quest or commendation.

After ability in reference to Parts, I must follow my Leader to examine the Lad's abilities in Purse: And 'tis denied to be any common practise for Parents or Friends to send a Boy to the University, who sit not down first and count the cost and charges, and intend not to contribute something at least to his subsistence: if they do, I would fain know what Tutour will admit him, unless he resolves to be a Father to him, and adopting him for his own, designs to furnish him with all ne­cessaries for Back and Belly, as well as those for the Head. It must be confess'd in­deed, that all have not so large Incomes [Page 45] as some; but yet withal, that they whose supplies are two profuse, are in a fairer way to miscarry than such as have rather too little: many are forced, for want of that same, to live in honest servitude, and the narrow compass of Sizers; what then? Must it therefore follow they are condem'd to such drudgeries as Chamber-sweeping, Water-fetching, and buying of Butter and Eggs? That's as very a Flam as all the rest: No, the main duty requi­red at their hands, is only to hold a Tren­cher, and College-Commons will not keep them at that from morning till night, but afford them sufficient intervals as well for their Studies as Recreations. What Man is ignorant that too large Allowances often make Lads prove idle and debauched? whereas on the contrary, they whose maintenance is short, as knowing what they must trust to, and being to lay the foundation of their own fortunes, and live by their wits, are usually the closest Students, and make the most eminent Scholars. Venter Magister artis, was Per­sius's Motto, and Pythagoras his Golden Scrap — [...]— attributes a kind of Omnipotence to Ne­cessity. [Page 46] Poor Lads may be suppos'd to bring a considerable stock of Parts along with them, though little else, and their own wants will spur up their industry to improve them to the utmost, and there­fore to shut our School-doors against all of inferiour quality and low fortunes, were an incomparable device to advance all learned Professions, or rather to stock an University with a loytering kind of Cattel, commonly call'd Drones and Dun­ces. Indeed the project of maintaining all there till they come to be Masters in Arts, I could like well, but that, upon consideration of the premises, I find it e­qually impossible with the rest of his easie Proposals? What then? Must they down at four years end upon the top of the Pack, and thence skip into the Pulpit? More words to a bargain sure; let the young Man stay till he be out of his time, before he sets up for himself: How then must he live till he come to be of Spiritual age? for Philosophy is a very idle thing when one is cold, and the small Systeme will not satisfie Nature: Is the Bishop of the Diocess bound to give him Orders to keep him from starving, or being a Parish charge? No dan­ger [Page 47] of that, because he is too young, but that we are told there is a thing call'd a Dispensation to be got, which will make you as old as you please. I thought he had been old enough without a Dispensa­tion to have had more wit and manners than to slander and revile Gods high Priests, by making the World believe every No­vice may (prece vel pretio) procure holy Orders. Doth not the Ca­non of the Church say,Q. Eliz. Can. Ch. 1. 1597. That if any Bishop Ordain a Man either without a Title, or under Age, he is for every such default li­able to Suspension for a whole year? There is indeed a Proviso, that Fellows of Col­leges (who are requir'd by their local Sta­tutes to be in Orders at such a prefixed time) be dispensed with in respect of their want of Age; but what is that to Country Parishes? That there may be, or is actu­ally a frequent abuse in this particular, (as he would needs intimate) is no less than a downright forgery. Now whereas he enquires how all those Stripplings that commence yearly must live till they come to an holy maturity, I answer first in ge­neral, that they do live somewhere; and [Page 48] though we daily meet with Iews, Greeks, Polonians, Hungarians, Germans, and o­ther Foreign Pretenders to Learning, beg­ging our Charity, either indirectly, by ad­mitting our Names into their Calendar of great Men, or directly in their Latine Gibberish; yet (such provisions there are made in England, that) we seldom find one of those hundreds of our own Nation brought to such extremities. Secondly, and more particularly I answer, That many of those Commencers design no o­ther but the Gentleman's Calling; many more betake themselves to the Law, Civil or Common, and to Physick; several who intend the Ministry, have competent E­states of their own; and himself grants that well nigh a fifth part are preferred in the Vniversity: all these deducted out of his two hundreds, the Remanent will not be very great, (and considering they are none of them more immortal than other Men) if he please, he may assign them to be Governours of Grammar Castles, or re­commend them to some good Gentlemen's Houses, to be their Childrens Tutours, and their own Companions. Indeed if our Gentry entertain Scholars to save a [Page 49] Servants Wages, (sometimes crowding in the looking after a couple of Geldings into the Ten Pounds a year) and allow them little more respect than they do their Cooks and Butlers; or keep the young Le­vite against the small Vicarage falls, to put my Cousin Abigail fairly off with it, I must confess it to be an intolerable fault. I confess I've read of a certain Roman Lady, who received Thesmopolis the Stoick into her Family, and to testifie the singular re­spect and kindness she had for him, com­mitted her beloved Bitch (I've quite for­got her Name) now very pregnant, to his care and tuition; and who so fit as the Philosopher to be trusted with such a Iewel in his bosom? For, as they jour­neyed, she had the advantage of easing Nature against his prominent-silver-Beard; and not long after, by his careful management of the Natural Causes, de­posited her precious Whelps in his learned Lap. Whether Lucian made the story to jeer the Stoick, or Lady, or both, or tells it for a true relation, it matters not, since he was but a meer Stoick, and she but a Hea­then Madam. But there's as little wit as truth in that fetch, that any Christen'd [Page 50] English Gentleman should make the same person his own Confessour (or Companion at least) and the Groom of his Horses Bed-chamber. His Tales are not well laid together: for is it not extreamly proba­ble, that one who rubs his Horses scabby heels, should be such excellent company for Sir Iohn, that he, forsooth, must be call'd down to say grace to every Health? [...]! What a petulancy of hu­mour is this, to invent such foppish Chi­maera's not only to abuse the Clergy and its Candidates, but to disoblige the Gentry also into the bargain? But stay! whither will this Chevalier Errant lead me? for like a Dog that hath lost the scent, he is continually roving about for new Game. You see what a Preacher he's likely to make, if ever he be effectually called by some fat Benefice, where Henry the Eighth took no Toll; for he is quite run from his Text; and if you please to call in about seven Pages backwards, you'll find him there only preparing his Lads for the V­niversity, whereas here he hath pack'd them down into Country again, and makes them stand sighing and picking their teeth, while the Knight and my Lady are at their [Page 51] Dainties. And because he is used to con­fess every ones faults but his own, I must tell him he forgets himself much, and is preposterous: for had he design'd to treat us methodically, our first course should have been School-Butter, College-Commons the second, and the Chickens and Tarts re­served till the last: and yet the Man is so confident as to say, he now passeth from Schooling to the Vniversities. Which, that he may not seem to do very abruptly, he in­terlopes here one thing more to bring the Boys and his Discourse together, that is, a good constitution of Body necessary for Stu­dents. Well! how shall we do to know this? Why, repair to the Physitians, cries he: Very good; but the best of them pretend to no more than good Guessers, whether at Health or Diseases, and unless they had a Spirit of Prophesie, and could foretel a Boy's Quomodo valet seven years hence, or could fix a healthy constitution where they find it, or when they pleased, the whole fabrick of this advice will prove (says my Author) as thin as a piece of Me­taphysicks: for if it be lawful for us to be­lieve our own Senses in this Sceptical Age, Constitutions are as variable as the Moon, [Page 52] (supposing no change of Diet, Air, or wonted Exercises, for these make them vary more still) and sickly puling Chil­dren often prove the more healthy and ro­bust Men; and again, lusty promising Boys do as often grow Consumptive and infirm at riper years, by reason of some inward defect in the vital parts, which the most Microscopical Physician could never disco­ver, till he was sent for to dissect the Body.

Nor should he have needed to argue pro and con, whether by following his idle Crotchets Vniversities should abate of their number and ancient splendour: for if ever they be induced thereby to change theit laudable customs, for his Eutopian Experiments, I'll venture to give him my Mother for a Maid.

As for ours, he professeth a great esteem for them, and their Governours Wisdom, (just as he complemented the Clergy in the beginning of his Book) and there­fore he doth not prescribe them any new Scheme of Education: but yet such a rare Architect he is, that you'll find him build­ing presently above the Top-stone of Wis­dom's own laying. Not that he doth de­termine [Page 53] positively whether the Old or New Philosophy be the best, not he for the World; but only tells us in short, that Aristotle's Monarchy is long since at an end, (and all the old moth-eaten Statutes (which mention him honourably) out of date, together with a certain little Oath thereunto belonging) and we are at pre­sent absolutely under the Government of a Democracy, or new Commonwealth of Atoms. To let that pass, I shall enquire into those two things that so much ob­struct University-improvements, and he intends to regulate perhaps, but not till the King makes him our Visitour; one whereof he reckons a defect, the other an abuse. The great defect is, that English Exercises are not imposed upon Lads, espe­cially such as are design'd for the Pulpit: A pretty piece of Reformation indeed, though he must not think to claim the honour of being its first Inventor: for there was a time when those heavenly Reformers at Westminster voted down Latine for the Language of the Beast, and were clearly for throwing the whole practise of the Law into an English Model. In imitati­on of them, the famous Culpepper brought [Page 54] the design to admirable effect in Physick; (Bonds, you see, could oblige, and Purges work then without Latine.) Nor was it reasonable that Divinity should stand out: for, to make a Through-Reformation, the Independents, Anabaptists, Antinomists, and other Factions, set up publick Schools in St. Pauls, and other places, (by the con­nivence of one Tyrannus, but not him in the Acts) wherein they frequently held Declamations and Disputations in their Mo­ther-Tongue, to train up the Old, and gain New Proselytes to their several Parties: so that he must not have the credit of this project. But that he may go to work more like a Philosopher than they, he pre­tends to back his design with some Rea­sons. The first is, That the Language learned Men must live by, is the English, there being no use of Latine in the Coun­try, but only to checquer Sermons, and make Salveto's to some Dominatio vestra. Bate me an Ace, quoth Bolton! The Language Plum-sellers indeed and Cheese-mongers live by, is the English, and 'tis enough for them to read English Histories, Romances and Plays, if not too much. But hath the Parson no more use for Latine? Hath he [Page 55] none but the Assemblies Notes, and Eng­lish Divines to consult? Hath he neither Councils nor Fathers, Philosophers nor Historians, Oratours nor Poets, Com­mentatours nor Criticks, nor any Books in other Languages to advise with, to per­fect his own Knowledge, and convince all Gainsayers? If it be said that Preach­ing, Oh Preaching, that's the All of his business, the very Marrow-bone of the matter; yet there will be some use of Latine however, till Lycosthenes, Polyan­thaea's, and the German Systems be done into English; for these are the only wor­thy Authors a great part of our Clergy are allowed by him. But in earnest, what a strange Caprice is this, to put young Scho­lars upon reading English Writers, as if the Language of their Country would not be familiar to them as well as others with­out all this stir? Those old Dotards, our wise Founders and Fore-fathers, thought they rather ought to be interdicted English Authors, and confined wholly to Latine; it being too sad a truth, that many Lads of very good Parts, having (by their School-masters neglect) no great skill in the Greek and Latin, sit down at English al­together, [Page 56] and by this means are perfect strangers to the most learned Writers in the World.

Thus much I could grant him, were it for his purpose, that English can't be throughly understood and master'd with­out a competent skill in Grammar, and the Greek and Latine, from which many of our English words have their origine▪ which is the reason that Boys and Wo­men, though speaking indifferently well, yet seldom or never write true English. Nor is there any thing but vain merriment in that observe, that some young conceit­ed Students write bombast and high-flown Epistles into the Country. Is this for want of English? No, nor for want of Ignorance; but a childish affectation of being out of the vulgar road, and rather for want of Brains and Latine: for I ne­ver yet met with a Lad that could give you an ingenious and pithy Discourse in Latine, but he could frame you the same with ease and advantage in his Native Di­alect.

Another Argument he brings to com­mend English Exercises, is, That they are so far from hindring their Latine-improvement, [Page 57] that they tend very much to its advantage. Nay then, Gentlemen, look to your Pockets, and let them read English, English, English, to the end of the Chapter. And how is this Paradox pro­ved? ‘Why, by telling you a small story of a certain Academick Youngster, (Nicho­las Nemo by name) who having finisht his postures at Table's end, made a silly Oration in Latine, (though he gives it in English, and who knows whether it be faithfully translated?) wherein he com­plains that his Muse and half ne'er drank above size q. of Helicon; that he hath neither Stars nor Glories, Phrases nor Pearls, nothing but a shady Grove, or purling stream to describe, &c..’ And so, for fear of wounding your patience, he makes his Leg, and exit: fare him well! Granting all this were as true as that the Sea burns, though 'tis hardly that, yet what doth it argue? Yes, he tells us, That if the Lad had first determin'd in English what he intended to say in Latine, he would have discern'd and avoided all these impertinencies; which is a postula­tum we do absolutely deny: for had he taken that course, he could but have done [Page 58] his best, his utmost still, although it must cost him double the pains; and 'tis a fond thing to imagine the Boy is wiser in Eng­lish than in Latine, supposing he under­stands both. The true reason why he made such a Chicken-broth Discourse, was, not for want of skill in English or Latin, but for want of fancy and [...], Parts, Judgment and Years; for Child is but Child, and Boy is but Boy still, however this Mans Geese must be all Swans, his imaginary Lads a­ble to declaim against Quinctilian, and cope with Cicero himself at a solid and fleshy Oration: so that if any one be so childish as to believe he comes to the Uni­versity to learn English, let him know he is abused, and made to begin at the wrong end. Let him read and digest the best Greek and Latine Authors for his purpose first, and lay in a stock of substantial Learn­ing both Ancient and Modern; and then when he comes of age, and years of discre­tion, (before he engage in the Pulpit) we'll give him leave to read the choicest English Books to advance his stile, and give him a perfect command of his Mo­ther Tongue.

The other Indictment he draws up a­gainst [Page 59] Universities, is for retaining an ancient custom of Ioquing, as if himself were all this while grave and serious, or above those small Dispensations. Like a­nother Beardless Apollo, he summons all Tripus's, Praevaricator's, and Terraefilius's to Parnassus, to give them fair warning that nothing must henceforth go for Wit, but what is full measure according to his Standard. As for their little conceits, he knocks them all o'th' head with one solid and ponderous Argument, viz. They are useful neither in Law, Physick, nor Divi­nity, Ergo, they are good for nothing: Tanquam ex Tripode quidem dictum! But Sir Tripus would answer him with a non sequitur: for they are not only innocent Recreations of themselves, (when they quit their subjects indeed to fall foul upon Governments, Persons, and Functions, like you know who, they expect to be called eoram Nobis, and sent to Bocardo or the Black Rod, without Bail or Mainprise) but of excellent use too if handsomly ma­naged; it is to be considered that Laugh­ter is a great Promoter of Health in ge­neral, and an easie Amulet against some distempers that hang about sedentary Men [Page 60] in particular: it unbends the Mind, loo­sens the distended Nerves of the Soul, and revives its drooping Spirits after a won­derful manner; and why then must it be deemed a Capital Crime to interpose one merry Scene, to set off a serious and tedi­ous Act, more resembling a Long-Parlia­ment Fast than I know what? And if Saint Iohn diverted himself sometimes in playing with Partridges, whilst he was writing his mysterious Apocalypse, why may not grave Men have their Spleens tickled, though but with Straws and Fea­thers, rather than crack their Sculls with Voluminous Positions, long-winded Spee­ches, and endless Disputes about some Cross-grain'd Theory? Wherefore 'tis not material though these lighter and more airy kind of Exercises are not, nor ever were intended to be useful in Law, Physick, or Divinity, so long as they have a laudable end, and wholsom effect of their own. Nor is it necessary one that hath got the right knack of Ioquing, should follow that trade all his life, more than he who happens to act a Fool's part well in two or three Plays, may be supposed ne­ver after to quit the Stage. Dulce est de­sipere [Page 61] in loco; a prudent Man at different times and places knows when to be in jest or earnest. No Man ever dreamt that King Iames made Dull-man in Ignoramus a Bishop, for acting a Dull-man all his life, but for being one of the wisest Men in the company, as he afterwards approv'd him­self.

In the next place, (like some Sir Poli­tick Would-be) he traduces our Terraefi­lius's and Praevaricator's not a little, in re­presenting them as Nibblers at an ambi­guous word, and Quibblers upon Lilly's Poetry, or at best but Tossers of an Ax­iom out of Logick, with a Hocas Pocas, &c. whereas they oftentimes produce as good fancy, ingenious humours, lively action, well contriv'd Ironies, merry Fictions, mimical Gestures, and Burlesque Descri­ptions, as any I find in his little Letter, yea or the great Don of Mancha. In a word, this difficult Province being usu­ally assigned to the choicest Wits, it is un­reasonable to fancy they must needs prove Iack-puddings in the Pulpit or elsewhere, especially when we recount how many of them of late years have arrived at consi­derable Preferments both in Church and State.

[Page 62]And now let the World judge if these two little things are not mighty Obstru­ctions to a Clergy-man's improvement in Academick Studies! Indeed if he could have impeacht our Vniversities of some real abuses, as that kissing goes by favour, I mean, that a great number of the Youth are committed to the care of such Tu­tours, whose ignorance hath made them sordidly servile, and their flattery pre­ferr'd them to be Favourites; or of such others who are of too large Principles and Practises in their Religion, and own no other, perhaps, but Hobbs's Creed; or could he have complained justly, that our Degrees lie as open as the High-way for all Comers; that Hands and Seals to Letters Testimonial are common as Stones in the Streets, and never denied to the most in­corrigible Dunces, and the like, he might have lighted on something that did really incommode all learned Professions, especi­ally the Clergy; but since he could find no such Camel-like faults amongst them worth the mending, I wonder he should be so Boyish as to make all this noise and strain­ing meerly to catch a few Gnats.

[Page 63]From the Vniversity he persecutes the Clergy-man into the Pulpit; and though he confesses he has no Authority to give Rules of Preaching, yet you must expect him to be as free of his Censures there­of, as if he were Archbishop of the Pro­vince.

Now as we advance to enquire into His abuses of Preaching, I must needs whis­per an old advice into his ear, ut Titulum Legat. For if I well remember, he is now inferring the Contempt of the Clergy from the Topick of their Ignorance: And is it not strange any Man in his wits should go about to prove that, from the towring E­loquence, and profound Learning of some, and the abundance of Latine, Greek, and Hebrew, said to lard the Sermons of others? Besides, 'tis strange any Man should be so loftily eloquent, and deeply learned as to want common prudence, and not consi­der his audience, and distinguish between an University and a Country Pulpit. But the Plot is very visible; for, resolving to hook in the whole Clergy into his Lob's Pound before he had done, he hath now divided them into two Reverend Classes, [Page 94] of learned Mad-men, and ignorant Fools. 'Tis well his word is no slander. In the mean time, it's oft the People's more than Preacher's fault he is not clearly under­stood, who being either captious or ob­noxious (like the old Pharisees) will shut their eyes against Truths made out as clear as the Sun, because against the grain, and not for their turn; and though with Saint Paul he reason plainly of those plain Do­ctrines, Righteousness, Temperance, and Iudgment to come; yet like Felix touch­ed to the quick, they either bid him go his way for this time, and stay till they send for him, or cry out with Festus, The Man is certainly besides himself.

Now I know no Law he transgresses if the Preacher now and then quote a Greek or Latine Author in a vulgar Auditory: None but Calumny it self would have charg'd him at a venture with Ostentation and Vanity. Why might he not rather do it to distinguish him from a Gifted Bro­ther in a Conventicle, who talks all of his own head in home-spun English? And why not to show that very learned Men are of his Opinion, and that he desires not his Auditours to believe it because he [Page 65] said it, but because it is true? Authority is a more effectual Argument ad hominem, than a Demonstration, because seldom ta­ken. What though few or none under­stand him those very words, so long as they apprehend him in much more than they can remember? Should he dis­course all in English, and like a Scholar, he must not expect to be intelligible all along to common capacities, more than those [...] in a Chapter of St. Paul read in English.

There is a sort of Preaching our Author seems to favour, (if he favour any) by dividing a Text into one part, I mean, by making a long continued Harangue upon some certain subject; which, if well ex­amined, would be found more useless and unprofitable than those said to be spi­ced full of Latine, partly for its want of method and due helps of memory, and partly for being full of Latinized-affected-English. For I'll assure you, the Vulgar understand Saint Chrysostome's easie Greek, and Saint Austine's, nay Tertullian's Afri­can Latine, as well as they do the parti­cular passages, and whole frame and drift of such a Discourse. They know not with­out [Page 66] an Interpreter what you mean by your rational Notions, ingenious Principles, and sublime Moralities; your fervid Parturien­cies, parturient Agonies, and zealous Pre­sages of the People; your Accommoda­tions and interchangeable Ratifications of Peace; your adjusting differences be­tween the Animal and Divine Life, and a thousand more some of our pretended Masters of Reason have raked out of Ga­zets and late Rodomontado Authors, to make them a Schibboleth of distinction, whereby they would be thought wiser than the common Herd of Mortals. E­very Man in his way; yet they are not always the wiser and more rational part of Mankind, who are so charitable as to think themselves so.

But the Greek and Latine Shreds are not always lost; for there is sometimes an all-wise Patron, or all-understanding Ju­stice of Peace at Church. Not to envy him his wonted happiness in Epithets, though he lay it down dogmatically for a certain Maxim, That there is as great a future reward in saving one that takes Collection, as the best Man in the Parish, and consequently they should be preacht [Page 67] at both alike; yet other Men think they may warrantably take more pains to con­vert a potent and publick Person, than any one of the little People, because in gain­ing him they usually gain half a Parish. Harmonides the Minstrel being now Master of his Art, ask'd his Tutour Timothy what course he must take to get him a Name and esteem all over Greece? his answer was, That it would be a tedious and end­less piece of work to show his skill to eve­ry ordinary Mechanick, besides that such are no competent Judges: But the most compendious way to do his business, was to give a Specimen of his Art to some few of the Potentates, of the chief and leading Men in all Greece, and when they are pos­sess'd (said he) with an Opinion of thy Excellency, all the World will presently commend and admire thee by their exam­ple, as Lucian tells the Story. And we know that the World lives more by Ex­ample than Precept, that the Farmer is or­dinarily of his Landlord's Religion, and that 'tis sometime more in His than the Parson's power to make his Tenant a good Church-man, or an idle Sectary.

But our Saviour and his Apostles (saith [Page 68] he) make no such distinction in their Dis­courses. A Metaphor taken from the Fa­natick way of arguing; because they did not in some Circumstances, we may not in any. What if our Saviour's Auditors were all of a piece, all of the [...], or at least the [...]; the Text doth not say any of the Learned, or any Knights and Squires were there: Nay, another private Text asks the Question, (which I take for little less than an universal Negative) Have any of the Rulers, or of the Pharisees belie­ved on him? The Gospel was first preacht to the Poor, and not many Wise, not many Noble were called, they being loth to stoop from their Grandeur, and renounce all their Carnal Wisdom, as it required: but since the Learned and Noble have em­braced the Faith, surely there's more use of Learning and Eloquence to convert and confirm them, than the rude Vulgar.

As for the sequel of his Discourse about Preaching, an hundred to one if it be not like something or other. It is not like the Picture of a French Lady, who gave the Painter five Livres more than ordina­ry to correct the defects of Natures Pen­cil, and make her an exact Beauty: But [Page 69] rather like some Dutch piece representing a company of Anticks and Apes-faces, where every one squines or grins, snears or mumps e'en as it pleas'd the Painter. Or if you will, 'tis like a Pedler's Stall, I have seen, managed by the little Iohn of all Trades in his narrow-brimm'd Beaver pincht to a point; how busily he struts a­bout, crying, (Come buy my ratling Me­taphors, my Ginger-bread Similitudes, my dainty laced Prefaces, ingenious Pictures, exact Compasses, Iews-Trumps, Hobby-Horses, Thimbles and Bodkins, Divine Knicknacks and Conceits: Here's your A­qua fortis, Sal Armoniack, Tops, Pears, and Pomegranates, Violins, Trebbles and Gingles, new Songs, new Moons, new Al­manacks, new; see here, what is't you lack?) till all the Infantry in Town flock about him to gaze at his little less than Tredes­kin-variety of Miracles. Even so —

But in earnest, let's enquire seriously into the main things he says make Prea­chers ridiculous, i. e. Harsh Metaphors, childish Similitudes, foolish Prefaces, affe­cted Divisions, cunning Doctrines, odd Expressions, and such like, and how far they are true, or concern the present Clergy.

[Page 70]In the first place, we are much obliged to the Gentleman that he doth not con­fine and tie us up so strictly, as that we must upon all occasions call a Spade a Spade, (at our peril) but allows us the common priviledge of all Oratours, to use Improprieties sometimes, whether Simi­le's at large, or Metaphors, which are the same thing contracted into one word, provided they be grave, decent, significant and pertinent: and had he denied us, the case would not have been much alter'd; for we are not to learn from him what singular use there may be of them many times for informing Vulgar Iudgments, and influencing their Affections; which is a reason special enough why our Savi­our used this way of Preaching.

But secondly, We deny all those instan­ces to be ridiculous which he is pleased to vend for such. For what if a Text should chance to be like an ingenious Picture, or Moses's Rod, or Noah's Dove, yea or like the very Man going to Iericho? Where's the false Latine all this while, provided the Application be natural and apposite? E­very Mechanick can tell him, that Simili­tudes are not design'd to agree as one Plain [Page 71] doth with another; if they touch but in one point, as a Globe upon a Plain, it is sufficient. And if he quarrel with these and such like Comparisons, he is in a fair way to fall foul upon the most sober and even sacred Writings. What if the Prea­cher should upon occasion compare a Cloud to a Mans Hand, wise speeches to Apples of Gold in pictures of Silver, (provided they be not ingenious Pictures) Israel to the dust of the Earth, Iob to a Cruddled Cheese, Man to a wild Asses Colt, and his own dung, Confidence to a broken Tooth, Spirits to Frogs, the Soul to the Chariots of Amminadab, Hezekiah to a Weaver, a Crane and Swallow, the Jews to roaring Bears, the Word of God to Fire, a Hammer and a Sword, the Kingdom of Heaven to a Grain of Mustard-seed, a little Leaven, a Net, a lost Groat, the Son of Man him­self to a Shepherd, a Lamb, a Lyon, a Vine, a Branch, with hundreds more of that na­ture? I'll assure you it may be done so­berly and significantly, for it has been done; and none but a profane Wit would dare to play with the least and smallest things when once made sacred. — Procul O procul ite Profani.

[Page 72]But amongst the rest of his Prefaces, I wonder he could not light upon one grown too common of late, and is per­haps more needless (to say no more) than any he hath mention'd; I mean, a long conceived Prayer before Sermon, wherein the Preacher presents God Almighty with a large train of Titles, and recommends several persons to him under the notion of Right Honourable, Reverend, Worship­ful, Learned and Worthy, Earls, Bishops, Knights, Doctors, Esquires, Gentlemen, Mr. Proctours, Mr. Taxers, &c. He could have told them that God Almighty need­ed not to be informed of any Mans Worth or Quality, and that those Titles were im­proper to be offer'd up to God in a solemn Prayer, but to be directed to the People in an Exhortation (according to the LV Ca­non) to mind them of that due respect they owe to their Superiours. But be­cause he says nothing hereof for some reasons best known to himself, I shall for others say no more.

Thirdly, You must know that our in­genuous Author hath lately been with the Man among the Tombs, and raked in dead Mens Ashes for several of the Stories [Page 73] he entertains you with. For instance, that Text against Non-residence and the device of the Triangular Heart, are both as old as Pauls. He that could not run without feet, was a famous Divine in his time, (he tells you) but that was long be­fore himself was out o'th' shell. Parson Slip-stocking, and the Author of the Dis­coveries, and many others whose Ghosts he brings in, have long since quitted the Stage; and admitting they were once of our Church, and did any of them act their parts ridiculously, yet what is that to the present Clergy? If he can't find in his heart to speak well of the Dead, and bury their infirmities with them, yet 'tis the heighth of injustice to charge the Living with their personal faults.

Fourthly, You may guess he was once of Mr. Nye's, or Mr. Calamy's, or some such Reformado Congregation, or at least hath frequented Conventicles since more than the Church, by a great deal of the idle stuff, and lamentable fooleries he hath the honour to bring to light, it being well known, that canting expressions, and all that way of talking, is the proper and Characteristical note of a Separatist: And [Page 74] if he had been as ingenuous as the worthy Author of the Friendly Debates, he would have set the saddle upon the right Horse, and not have pinn'd the extemporary effu­sions, sanctified nonsense, and intolerable fooleries of those factious Pulpiteers and Intruders, upon that Church they made it their whole business to pluck down by way of Reformation. It is no news to tell how instrumental many of the preci­ous Authors he cites, were in that Great Work. Nor is it any Miracle that Preach­ing was abused in those days, when a learned Orthodox Clergy was silenced for their malignant Loyalty, and their Pulpits filled with Shoe-makers, Taylors, Wea­vers, Threshers, Coblers, Tinkers, Brew­ers, Bakers, Fishmongers, Wool-Combers, and all manner of Russet-Rabbies, and Mechanick Divines: No wonder if there was rare work made with Texts and Preachments, when every one borrowed his Similitudes and Language from his own Trade, comparing Iacob to a Thresh­ing-Worm, Repentance to a Bull-rush, Man's Body to an Apple, his Soul to an Oyster, &c. But to lay their grievous extravagan­cies at the door of the present Church, is [Page 75] done so like a faithful Historian, as if the Sacrilege, Murders, Treasons and Regi­cide of those black-soul'd Rumpers should be unreasonably wrested to reflect upon this present most Loyal and Renowned Parliament.

Lastly, The residue of those little pas­sages and stories he laughs at, are either purely of his own invention, or abused and perverted into ridiculous by his Addi­tions or Explications: Whereby it ap­pears his Genius inclines him to Plays, Poetry and Romances, rather than Histo­ry: in those indeed he hath no Law, but to write what he and his Muses please; but in this he must expect to be confined wholly to Truth.

Now I demand what mortal Man ever heard such terms as Star-board and Lar-board, Sterns and Fore-castles in a Sermon, since Pulpits made of Ships Beaks have been out of fashion? No, no, they are his own, as well as the rering, flanking, in­trenching and storming a Text, together with those touches of Ptolemy's Systeme, solid Orbs, and the points of the Compass, and comparing the Moon, Mercury and Ve­nus to Violins and Trebbles, all his own, de­vised [Page 76] meerly to give us some hints of his general Accomplishments. First he gives you a taste of his skill in Navigation, then in Military Discipline; for I can assure you he hath seen a Ship, and heard of a Fight: but for Astronomy, Oh Astrono­my! —let him alone; and yet, if he make no better use on't, it is to be fear'd he was born under a three-penny Planet, (whether according to the Old or New Hypothesis it matters not) however he talks sometimes of keeping Ten Foot-boys, and being Secretary of State.

Again, Those choice Phrases of hack­ing, hewing, and splitting of Texts, (soft and gentle Metaphors taken from riving a tender Oak) making Faith, Hope and Charity a little Ring of Bells, together with the Latine Materials, Hic labor, hoc opus —silvestrem tenui — are all his own still. And if he be so good at the Forge, and can beat you an entire Fiction out of his own Brain, no wonder he hath a little dexterity at the File and Hammer, to work his matter into what shape he please, to add or detract, bend or straigh­ten it as occasion serves. Indeed he wrests Mens Sermons like a Nose of Wax, as [Page 77] Hereticks deal by the holy Scriptures, and makes the poor Parson wind and turn all manner of ways, as a Rider would do his Spanish Iennet. For instance, the story of making Christ a Shop-keeper, (however it comes not in hobbling with a reverence be it spoken) is most shamefully mis-re­presented, the greatest part of it owning no other Author but himself. He must pardon me if I credit my own Ears more than his lavish Pen, and any Man that will believe his own Eyes, may find the truth of what I say by consulting the Copy.

Another he brings in Preaching about Episcopacy, from that Text Acts 16.30. Sirs, What must I do to be saved? And this (I must tell you) is nothing more than a confident Calumny: for Episcopacy was not the business of that Sermon. 'Tis true, the Preacher did by the way reflect upon the word [...], (for it doth signi­fie Lords in plain English) and thence in­sinuate what respect and honour was gi­ven to the Apostles and Pastours of the Church by those Primitive Converts: but that he should infer, that Bishops were formerly Peers of the Realm, and did here­by [Page 78] claim their priviledge of sitting in the House of Lords, is such a monstrous for­gery as you can scarce match it in all Lu­cian, though he is so civil as to tell us be­forehand his true Histories are all false. And yet when his hand was in, he could not forbear slandering another person of Worth, with another of the same; who, though he did from that Text in St. Mat­thew, Seek ye the Kingdom of God— Observe in transitu, that Monarchy was the best of Governments, as bearing a nearer resemblance to that of God himself, than any Aristocracy or Commonwealth; yet that he should use any such ridiculous Ex­pressions as those, — It is not said the Par­liament of God, the Army of God, or the Committee of Safety of God,— is a great untruth, second to none but that I told you of before; so easie a thing it is for a Splenetick Momus to take every thing by the wrong handle, and make that look ri­diculous which was spoken never so well and soberly. Now (as we use to say, ex pede Herculem) by these instances you may jude of the rest, and guess at the Mans Ingenuity, the greatest part of all those Absurdities charg'd upon Preaching being [Page 79] either his own, or none of ours, who have but the least relation (so much as that of Journey-men) to the present Clergy. Wherefore, to shut up this Stage, though we account of such as tell us of our faults truly, modestly, and in private, as of our best Friends; yet we shall beware of them that do not only publish and divulge our private failings to reproach and upbraid us, but make them ten times more than we acknowledge, as of the most ill-natu­red and pernicious of all our Enemies.

And so I pass on to his second Topick, the Clergy's Poverty, to examine whether he hath betray'd more integrity in repre­senting that. And because I have already shewed that the generality even of our In­feriour Clergy are not so dismally poor and shrimped things as he makes them, I shall content my self with some short Remarks upon him now, to leave a little room for my third and last Proposition, which, I presume, will end the whole Contro­versie.

And here he proceeds to talk after the old wild rate, and hath set the second Part to the same Tune exactly with the first, [Page 80] taking the same extravagant liberty in his Expressions, Figures and Forgeries. There is the never-enough-to-be-commended I­rony, that dispatcheth one half of the busi­ness, and what remains is made good by the prodigious all-confounding Hyperbole, by which he can blow up a Fly into the full proportion of five hundred Camels put to­gether. When he seems to commend, he mostly jeers; what he pities, he abuseth: when he would deplore his Clergies rui­nous Circumstances, he only laughs till the tears stand in his eyes. Take him at one end of his Glass, and he'll show you a Mole-hill grown up into a Mountain; and if there be occasion to look at the o­ther, high jingo, tanutus — the old massy Mountain dwindles presently into a young Mole-hill. At first he makes a formal face like some piteous Statue in the Wall, that would have us believe it bears up the whole Fabrick by its shrugging; as if it were a burden to his little Conscience that our Clergy is not so well provided for as the Priesthood of old: but all he drives at in the end, is only to let off a Querk or two, and certifie Mankind that the Souls of Men are a greater charge than Sheep [Page 81] and Oxen, and that Money and Victuals were not Types and Shadows to cease with the Ceremonial Law. At length he shows upon the High Rope, and advances to the top of his design, his elaborate Descripti­on of the Vicar, which, that it might be to the life, he hath ransack'd all the Ro­mances and Plays written since the King came in, for Accoutrements to make him the most despicable Lazarillo in Nature: ‘For he discovers him walking pensively alone in his Church-yard, either with­out a Cassock, or without Breeches, (ac­cording as it happen'd to be the Breeches or Cassock-year) and studying meerly how to live; casting with himself what Piggs, Geese and Apples are towards, who is likely to marry or die next, and sadly remembring that the last Kilder­kin of Drink is near departed, and that all his Treasure is reduced to one single Groat. Returning to the little Hut, his Mansion-house, he meets with new disasters to enhance his sorrows, a scur­vy Mole had plough'd up most of his Globe, and the malicious Crows tram­pled down the remaining Grass: then sweep comes the Kite, and robs him of [Page 82] the most hopeful Chick in all the brood: And to make up the Scene and ruine him quite, the Jack-daws and Starlings (idle Birds that they are!) scatter'd and carried away forty or fifty of the best Straws from his Thin-thatch'd Roof. Thus rack'd and tortur'd, he tries to weather out his melancholy by retiring into the little hole over the Oven, cal­led his Study, (contriv'd there, I suppose, to save firing) a pretty little Vatican, the whole furniture whereof is a Ger­man Systeme, a Geneva Bible and Con­cordance of the same, a Boudget of old stitch'd Sermons, some broken Girts, with two or three yards of Whip-cord behind the door, and a Saw and Ham­mer to prevent Dilapidations. But finding his Family cannot be maintain'd with Texts and Contexts, (the Child in the Cradle crying all this while for want of Milk) down he creeps again, and betakes himself to those Heavenly employments, of filling the Dung-Cart in dry weather, pilling of Hemp, and heating the Oven in wet; and, to evi­dence his willingness to turn a Penny in an honest way, one day he went to Mar­ket [Page 83] upon a Pannier with Turkies and Geese bobbing out their heads under his Canonical Coat: but alas, alas, in his absence the beloved Duck miscarries, or the never-failing Hen forsakes her wont­ed Nest, at which he either runs raving about the Yard like a Lunatick, or else confines himself to the little Hole afore­said, being e'en overwhelmed with grief and despair.—’ Now did you ever meet with such a Romantick Whimsie as this in all your Travails? Do you believe he really thinks this is a Man of God he thus sets out, and makes so bold with? Doth he not fully betray that mighty re­verence he has for the holy Profession, thus to prevaricate, and coyn an Eutopian Vicar meerly to laugh at? Besides, granting there ever was such a forlorn Creature as he describes, yet how ridiculous a thing is this new way of Argumentation which concludes from Particulars? For if you will take his word for good Logick, one instance or two reflects disparagement, and procures a general disesteem to all that Order of holy Men, pag. 98. As much as to say, that, if some of the Gentry of England, being decayed in their Estates through [Page 84] their Loyalty to the King, or by their own imprudence, their Children come to be Tapsters or Hostlers, or any other servile Officers, there must needs be a blot in the Scutcheons of all the rest, though never so flourishing, till Dooms-day.

Now I shall not undertake to answer his mad Description, but only crave leave to tell you a Story, and give him the ho­nour of bearing a considerable part in it, which (though it be a meer Fiction, and you are requested beforehand not to be­lieve it, yet) may seem perhaps as pro­bable and plausible as that he makes no scruple to publish for true.

‘Spending some time in my Travails at the famous Hecdecapolis, I was con­ducted to a certain Covent of the Eleu­theri, who are said to have been former­ly a Religious Order, and I guess they might, by the ruines of a Chappel I found there, (looking now like a decayed Dove-Cote, from which the Inhabi­tants are fled for self-preservation) and many ancient Inscriptions in the Walls and Windows: but since they are irre­gular and free from all Laws, Vows and [Page 85] Duties, (however it came to pass) ha­ving no Obligations upon them but to live as their own Genius shall prompt them. In habit they differ not much from other Covents in Greece, excepting only this, that they more resemble some of the old conceited Philosophers by their Beards, which are above a Cubit long, and set accurately in mood and fi­gure. But lest I be mistaken, you must know they hate to be very like those Old Men either in their Opinions or Beards; for whereas they used to hang their Beards before in the natural place, these wear them most behind in opposition: besides, their Beards were truly and pro­perly their own; but these by keeping their Heads too hot, have none of their own, (40 or 50 Straws of natural Thatch growing upon the place, being with them almost a Miracle) but make them artificial ones of the Manes of cer­tain She-Asses, cut off once in so many years for that purpose. As for Diet, I know no Covent in Europe which out­does them; for rejecting all the old me­thods of living upon Bread, Water and Herbs, and such mean Dispensations, [Page 86] they are plentifully furnisht with all sorts of provisions, from the Wing of an Ox to the Leg of a Lark, all manner of va­rieties Seas or Rivers produce, together with all kinds of Vehicles, commonly call'd Liquors, from the most Chymi­cally prepar'd and spirituous, down to those of the inferiour Brew-house. Nor do I speak all this by conjecture or hear­say, but as I found by experience; for one of the Fraternity perceiving me cu­rious and inquisitive, as strangers use to be, would needs engage me to eat at their common Table to see their fashions, which I was easily perswaded to, as well to gratifie my hunger as curiosity: the manner whereof was briefly thus: We being summon'd together by their Auto­maton or Clock, and the Table spread, Proclamation was presently made by one of the Machines or Novices, in this short Grace, Ede, Bibe, Lude, and then down sate every one as he pleased, and fell to where he liked best. But they had the strangest names for their Meats as well as all things else, that, had not I kept to my old rule of believing my senses, had I not seen and scented good store of real [Page 87] Provender before me, I should have thought my self decoyed to some Magi­cal Banquet: for they call'd a good round Pudding, a solid Orb, (the Plumbs re­sembling fixt Stars;) a Collar of Brawn, a Callous Cylinder; a Shoulder of Mut­ton, a Triangle; a couple of Capons, Platonick Eunuchs; a Veal Pye, a Penta­gone; a French Quelque Chose, a fortui­tous concourse of delicious Atoms; and the Chafing-Dish under it, an Hypothesis; Sausages, a Dish of Circles; a heap of wild Fowl, a Pyramid, to mention no more. If they want any thing, they dis­dain to ask it in the Language other Men use, but one cries, Transfuse me some brisk Lyaean Blood into that same Flute; another, Reach hither a few of those Sa­line Particles; a third, Pray anatomize that Quadrupede, and accommodate me with a quantum of the Spina dorsi; and much more I either understood not, or was not then at leisure to remember. When they had taken a free Dose of the Creature, as they call it, and their Bellies were grown hard as Drums, the Room began to eccho with their swaggering and bidding defiance to all the Learned [Page 88] Men that ever were in the World, always excepting themselves. One calls the Stoicks Fools for resisting Natural Cau­ses, and curbing their Appetites; and the Pythagoreans Mad-men for abstaining superstitiously from good wholsom Flesh: another doth but name Aristotle with his green Bag of Occult Qualities under his Cloak, and all the Company laugh out right, as if they had found a Mare's-Nests a third brags of the antiquity of their Order, pretending with those Ar­cadians they are elder than the Moon, and had a state of Prae-existence: a fourth re­lates his Telescope-Travels, how many Stars he found out that never were seen before, and peopled with Inhabitants: another jeers Ptolemy's Systeme off the Hinges, for by this time it was a De­monstration that all the World turn'd round. But I took special notice of one above the rest, (call'd Boccaline Junior, Secretary to the Order) who in less than an hours space, beginning with a Preface from Adam, ran through all Ages, Na­tions, and Orders of Men, and abused them pleasantly as he went: At first I took him for a Conjurer, for he could [Page 89] raise the Ghosts of a hundred old Philo­sophers, and make them all dance after his Pipe; he could make a Cat to speak; he could transform a Man into an Ass; dress the wisest up like Fools; and play with Religion it self, as if it were an old Dotage; but afterwards I understood he did all this by the Art of Memory, and only repeated the several Acts, Dogmes, Resolves, and Philosophical Decrees, (clubb'd and agreed upon by a Grand Committee of the whole House) which he is to keep by his place. Thus when they had fill'd their Bellies with Laugh­ter, and other good Chear, the Compa­ny broke up, and each retired to their several apartments: only my friendly Guardian took me aside, and honour'd me further with a sight of their Publick Library, which I wondred to find so thin of Books, their whole store being only Epicurus's Works, Lucian's Dialogues, Cartes, Hobbs, and two or three more modern Authors, with two large Files, one of Gazets, and the other of Philoso­phical News-Books; but he soon resolv'd me, by informing me that those Shelves were not long since crowded with all [Page 90] sorts of ancient Authors, but by a com­mon decree they had lately Voted them all to be burnt, as so much useless Lum­ber obstructing the growth and perfecti­on of Arts and Sciences; and were a­greed upon a new Model of Learning, more compendious and demonstrative than the old, which was shortly to be published. At the far end of the Room he shewed me a pair of fair Globes, full of Atoms as they could hold, which (he told me in my ear) were Materials to make new Worlds: for if one take never so many Bushels out, they still continue top-full, being supplied, he said, by a constant Effiuvium from some invisible Rock or Mine. The Classes formerly fill'd with Books, were now taken up with all sorts of Mathematical Instru­ments, Glasses, Pot-Guns, Crucibles, Pow­der of Experience, Louse-Traps, Sche­letons of Ants, Fleas, and other little Gentlefolk, Tubes for Transfusion, the the Spleens of Gnats yet alive, several Limbs of Chimaera's, divers pairs of U­nicorn's Horns, Phoenix's Feathers, Re­mora's Fins, and ten thousand Mecha­nical Knacks I cannot reckon. When I [Page 91] had sufficiently admir'd all these Rarities, I desired to be satisfied what Principles their Order owned? He was some­what shie in answering at first, but when I importun'd him, he told me, they em­brac'd few of those vulgarly received, some of their main and fundamental ones being to doubt of all things that are not demonstrated, gratifie their appe­tites, preserve themselves, Philosophize freely, laugh at all the World for their ignorance, and close with no Sect of Re­ligion, but comply outwardly with that which is most in fashion, with this pro­viso, That they may abstain from Super­stitious fasting-days and fasting-nights, and all other morose means of Mortifica­tion, they acknowledging no other but the present Life.’ And thus in short, ha­ving thank'd him for all his Cavilities, I took solemn leave of him at his Covent-Gate, and now return home again to my little Doctor of Atoms, (not doubting but he will candidly interpret Trick for Trick, and swallow one Pill himself for those many he hath offered a whole Clergy) who by this time finds it to his purpose to caution us, that we have a special care [Page 92] of comparing Ours with the Primitive Church under Persecution, or the present small-preferr'd Clergy in that of Rome: for if we do, it is a plain case that Pover­ty doth not always expose to Contempt, for then they were more obnoxious than we; it was not Money, but something else that preserv'd their esteem, the want whereof may possibly lessen ours, as I shall prove before I have done. And though he be seldom or never in, yet by and by he is still farther out, in giving us a reason why our Liturgy hath not its just estima­tion in Cities and Corporations; namely, because it is sometimes read there by un­learned Men: for he must either make us believe, that there were never any such Cattel in England as the famous Smectym­nuans, whose task it was to Pray and Preach it out of reputation, to make room for their goodly Directory, or that the whole Tribe of Adoniram are since cut off and extinct, and don't carry on the same work still in their private Meetings, or at least that their giddy Followers would quickly forsake Conventicles, if they could hear the Churches Prayers read constantly by some Reverend Prelate, or Learned [Page 93] Priest. — credat Iudaeus apella!

His last complaint is, that 'tis a great hazard if so Poor a Clergy be not idle, in­temperate and scandalous. This indeed was an old Article devised by foul-mouth'd Sequestrators, against such as were fat and full, whose very Benefices were scandalous, but never urg'd before against the twenty or thirty pound Men: And all Calumnies ought to have some little probability in them, or the Devil himself cannot believe them. He told you before that his Vicar had but one Groat in the House, and who can imagine he should break an entire Sum to spend his Penny, especially when there is an Execution out against it too for Milk and Eggs? Nor is it likely those Parish­ioners should be so bountiful as to bear him out, whom he had described before to cheat him of his Geese and Pigs, and have so despicable an opinion of him for his tatter'd old fashion'd Habit. Thus he has done with his Grounds of the Cler­gies disesteem, Ignorance and Poverty, be­fore I proceed to mine, I must consider a little those particular Occasions (he says) concur to make them so pitifully Poor and Contemptible.

[Page 94]The first whereof he makes the great scarcity of Livings in respect of that infi­nite number who either post, or (to show the vigilance of our Pastours) steal into Holy Orders; there being scarce employ­ment for half of those that undertake that holy Office: so that, unless they should take up the Romish Tricks of rambling up and down to cry Pardons, Indulgencies, &c. or unless we had some vent for our Learned ones beyond Sea, as we have for other Commodities with which the Nati­on is over-stock'd, one moiety of the Clergy must be condemn'd to beg or starve. But art thou in earnest, my excellent Contriver? Is the holy Function grown such a meer Drug in England, that it lies so much up­on our hands? Have we so many Tun of Divines to spare? (a mannerly Compari­son, pardonable from none but an empty Hogs-head:) so many hundreds ready to mount upon Pegasus, and ride down Sun and Moon for 25 or 30 l. a year? If this be true, then certainly it is not probable, that, having so great choice, we should be so meanly provided at home, as he hath been lamenting all along, but rather (small Preferments being better than none) [Page 95] that all our Churches and Chappels are fil­led with Persons of no inferiour Worth. But is it so in very deed, that we have scarce employment for half their number? What then becomes of the other half? Who maintains them? or do they live upon the Camelion's Diet? or how got they into Orders? Either they were Or­dain'd to a Title, or not; if to a Title, (be it Spiritual or Temporal) there is somewhat to live on; if to none, their Spiritual Fathers are bound to provide for and maintain them by Law: so that here is yet no visible necessity of recurring to the Old Ordinance of clapping under Deck again for Transportation. But that one half of the Priests and Deacons now in England are Ordain'd to no manner of Title (as he would perswade the World to the great disparagement of our Prelacy) is a wild supposal savouring neither of Wit nor Truth. All that the greatest candour can say in his excuse, is only this, That upon the Kings Return possibly there were fuller Ordinations than before or since, the Bishops not knowing but there might be a scarcity and want of Clergy­men to supply the places of those intru­ding [Page 96] Lay-brethren, besides that the Chur­ches Lands lately alienated were now re­stored, and the holy Profession began to retrieve its former Reputation: And if we be at present over-stocked, I have gi­ven the true reason of it, the only ill con­sequence whereof will be this, that unless our Reverend Bishops shall please to hold their hands awhile, the old ones are not likely to be worn out first; I mean, many Persons of good Worth and Learning will be fain to spin out their days in a College Cell, who might have done better service abroad in their Generation.

The next thing so much concurring to heighten our Clergies Poverty and Dis­esteem, he laies at the Gentries door, where­in he shews himself as much a Gentleman, as a Master of Reason. Indeed I thought he owed abundance of thanks to his Stars, if he came off fairly in the business of my Cousin Abigail: But in for a thousand, in for fifteen hundred; and having alrea­dy set out the Clergy, he now proceeds to render the Gentry also ridiculous. But have not the Gentry and Nobility too de­served better at our hands, than thus to be traduced, for dedicating some of their [Page 97] Sons to Gods Service?. Is this so ready a way to bring more Contempt upon the Clergy, and not rather a mean to redeem their credit, to make Church and State a compacted Body of one common interest, and keep a fair correspondence between Clergy and Laity, and prevent all future quarrels between them, which used to be grounded upon an old mistake, that they are naturally as little related, as the outward and the inward Man, or the Flesh and Spirit? ‘Yea, but (he says) they design the weak, lame, and most ill-favour­ed of their Children for the Ministry, ha­ving just limbs enough to climb the Pul­pit, and an eye or two to find out the day of the moneth, and then leave them to Gods blessing and the warm Sun, without one penny of Money, or inch of Land, excepting only a small stock to buy a broad Hat at second hand, and a small Systeme or two of Faith, whereupon you shall meet with few of them worth above two Spoons and a Pepper-Box, besides their Spiritualities.’ And now, Gentlemen, as you were. A very pretty Relation in­deed! which if it were true, I would fain ask our little-mighty Oracle whether it [Page 98] reflects more upon the Clergy or Gentry? Oh! without doubt it adds a great lustre to the Family, and commends his Pater­nal Wisdom, Care, and impartial Provi­dence, when a Father leaves a thousand Pounds per annum to his eldest Son, and and plentiful Portions to all the rest of the Brethren, excepting only the Divinity Thing, who is left so poor it can but just creep, having nothing but two Spoons and a Pepper-Box to keep it from starving. But the World is grown too wise to accompt all Gold that glitters, or to shut their eyes till they be trapann'd into the belief of a falshood, though never so plausibly var­nish'd o'er with specious Whimsies, and merry-mad Conceits.

In the little residue of his Letter, he plays the meer Child, and takes great pains to blow up a few Bubbles and Chry­stalline Globuli into the Air, standing at gaze after them till they burst and vanish: only in the close of all, he reminds his Reader, that he found the word Religion in the Title▪ And how much he hath be­trayed in the whole Book, let other Men judge, and himself consider whether he be not obliged to a second Epistle, to beg [Page 99] pardon of God and Man for writing the Name of Religion upon such a Fardel of scandalous Petulancies and Legendary Tales, unless he will be so ingenuous (now the High-Commission-Court is asleep) to undergo a voluntary Penance at some con­venient Market-Cross, with the Title of his Accusation written under him, The Author of the Contempt of the Clergy and of Religion. Where I shall leave him, and proceed to my third and last Proposition, which is this, That if the English Clergy be not truly valued, it is to be attributed to o­ther, and those far different Reasons: which once demonstrated and made good, it will appear evidently that his Letter being built upon a wrong Foundation, falls of it self, and may be burnt without any pre­judice to Truth or Reason, and conse­quently I hope the deluded World will be undeceived.

We must confess to our sorrow more than shame, that the holy Function hath been little set by, nay much disparaged and affronted of late years amongst us, (for by the Grace of God they have deser­ved better at the hands of Men than every rash young Shimei will allow them) the [Page 100] true Reasons whereof will soon appear, if we consider who and what manner of Persons they are who do most industri­ously throw Contempt upon them; and they must be either our professed Enemies, or pretended Friends. Now our Churches Enemies are reducible to three principal Herds or Bands: The first whereof are the openly debauched, profane, and Men A­theistically disposed, who think they were born at all adventures, and came into the World, as the Leviathan was sent into the Deep, meerly to sport and take their pa­stime therein; who are as wise in their own eyes as David's Fool, and say in their hearts, There is no God; who laugh at all things sacred, as being out of their Element, and make no more accompt of Re­ligion than of an ordinary piece of State-Policy. It may be they wear the name of Christians at large, and own themselves of ours rather than any other Church for fa­shions sake, or saving their credit, or some secular interest: but if you examine their Principles and Practises more narrowly, they will be found to belong rather to the Devil's Chappel. For were they hearty and in earnest, they could not possibly dif­fer [Page 101] from all Sects of Religionists in the World, who do constantly admire and re­verence their respective Priests and Prea­chers in what quality or circumstances so­ever they be. But the Grandees and most robust among these modern Sadduces don't level their scoffs and reproaches so low as the inferiour Clergy, the little Vi­cars and Curates (that were impar con­gressus, and a fitter task for some young beginner, some Novice in Raillery, who hath just parts and skill enough to make a Cobweb-Net that will take the lesser Flies) but aim rather at the chiefest of our Church-Governors, it being a more noble Conquest, a more sure and expedite way to wound Religion (that's the great project) through their sides. They are so far from accompting the Elders that rule never so well worthy of double, nay single Honour, that they fear not to revile Gods highest Priests, to deride, slander and lampoon the most renowned Prelate, even when he hath his most solemn audience, when he is delivering his Embassie from the great Monarch of Heaven, to his Vicegerent here on Earth. So that it is no fault of our Religion, or of the Ministry thereof, but [Page 102] ruinous decay of Christian Piety supplanted of late by Unchristian Practise, (for the true Causes whereof, I refer my Readers to that excellent Tractate, whose Author's Name the World is hitherto unworthy of) which prompts this Herd of brutish He­ctors to defie and contemn our Clergy and Religion both.

A second Band of our Churches Ene­mies are the Popish Recusants, who, ta­king the advantage of our late intestine differences; and having learnt of St. Pe­ter's pretented Successour to fish most ad­vantagiously in troubled waters, have much augmented, if not doubled their ancient number. And he that made such a grie­vous complaint of our being so much over-stock'd with Divines, had never heard of the Iesuites brags beyond Sea sure, Sir Edwyn Sandys tells us of, that the English Seminaries abroad send forth more Priests than our two Universities at home do Mi­nisters: And where should the Scene of their Action be laid more properly than in their own Country? What greater ser­vice can they do the Court of Rome, than to infect and poison their Native Air with foreign Vapours? Who more fit to throw [Page 103] the Kingdom into a Church-relapse, than they who are so well acquainted with the Temper, Language, Manners, Customs, Laws and Religion of the Country? It is not to be question'd but they, and all the Proselytes they either find, or make a­mongst us, are no Favourers of our Reli­gion or Clergy, but do privately and open­ly (when they dare) calumniate and de­cry both, as destructive to the Game and Interest they are to manage; and the true and only reason of their contemning and vilifying us, is an eager desire of enlarging their own Territories, that the Romans might come in once again, and take away both our Place and Nation. And there­fore that our Church neither is, nor ex­pects to be prized by them, more than o­thers they are pleas'd to call Hereticks, (because they cannot digest their corrupt Innovations for current Gospel) is their Goodness more than our Desert.

The third and last Body of our Chur­ches Enemies, are the Fanatick Recusants in the other extream: for though Manasseh declares fiercely against Ephraim, and E­phraim exclaims as much against Manasseh; yet both combine and unite their forces [Page 104] against the Common Enemy, poor Iudah. And truly to speak freely, and give these latter their due, I must needs say the Church of England hath suffer'd very much of late in her Reputation by their means: for they are a sort of clamorous Zealots, restless and troublesom Saints, as ever pretended to be of Christs retinue, who are for re­forming Church and State, and all things but themselves and their own pernicious Opinions. Seneca's character of unstable Men seems to be calculated particularly for them, Nihil liberè volunt, nihil abso­lutè, nihil semper: for they know not what they would have; and if you grant all their unreasonable demands, they are not satisfied, but still crying with the Daughters of the Horse-leech, Give, give. They had too precise thoughts of them­selves to continue in our Communion; and therefore, like the young brood of Vipers, made their way through their Mothers Bowels to procure their own li­berty: And that there might be room for a new Model of Government, necessity obliged them to pluck down the old one first. To this end all their artifices, espe­cially Preachments, were directed, they [Page 105] crying out against Episcopacy, as the chil­dren of Edom did of old against Ierusalem, Down with it, down with it, even to the ground; making nothing to call it oppro­biously the Prelatical Faction, (though themselves are forc'd to confess it is such a Faction as hath troubled the Church ever since the Apostles times) and by this means they quickly begat an odium in Mens Minds as well against the ancient Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, as against the Persons of the Bishops and Orthodox Clergy for their sakes. To them we owe all that Anarchy in Spiritual and Civil Matters, which, like a thick Cloud, did so long overspread us, and broke out at length into Thunder and Lightning about our ears; 'twas the fruit of their worthy Labours that our Goshen was turned into an Egypt by Usurping Tyrants who knew not Ioseph, and the Rod of Aaron served for no other use a long time but to scourge the Sons of Levi. Nor is it any wonder that the prejudices they raised against our Liturgy and its Assertours are not yet worn out, considering how presumptu­ously and in despight of all Law both Sa­cred and Civil, the Nonconformists still [Page 106] keep up their private Conventicles to con­firm the Brethren in all the false Notions they had formerly imbibed. But all this while the true reason that this whole Par­ty (taking in all its sub-divisions) despise and oppose our Reverend Clergy, is, for their constant and approved Loyalty to God and the King, and sticking close to both in all Weathers, it being their most sacred Principle, Not to meddle with them that are given to Change.

How great a part of the Nation these three Squadrons of our Churches Enemies make, is too sad a Theme for me to en­large upon; they have over-spread the Land like Locusts, and 'twould puzzle a very good Arithmetician to compute them; it is sufficient for my present pur­pose that none of them dislike our Clergy either for their Ignorance or Poverty, (for the more Rich and Learned it is, the worse they hate or envy it) but upon vastly dif­ferent Motives; the first speak evil of them (and all things sacred) purely on the accompt of their own irreligion; the second, for their opposing the corrupted Doctrine and Discipline of Rome; the third, for their malignant Loyalty and re­solv'd [Page 107] Obedience to God and his Church, maugre all Scotish Covenants or Geneva Models.

The residue of the Nation we shall al­low to be either in reality or pretence at least so far the Churches Friends, as that they are not likely to be tempted in haste to throw off her Communion upon any score; and yet I must freely grant, that neither have many of them so just an esteem and value for the holy Function as they ought to have.

However, if we find out a more pro­bable and substantial Reason why they are also wanting in their due estimation of the Priesthood, than either of those two our small Conjecturer hath hit upon, his business, I presume, will be compleatly done; he may e'en sit him down and guess again, or rather take the Poets advice along with him for the future,

and chuse some fitter subject for him and his idle Muses to play with next time, and not [...], not intrude into those things he understands not.

[Page 108]Now if we would speak out, and an­swer plainly and truly how it comes to pass that so many of our pretended Friends give us not due respect and honour, we must say it is because our Clergy are not publickly allowed the Authority due to their Function, and necessary for execu­ting the power of the Keys; I mean, the want of that godly Discipline of Con­fession and Penance in the Primitive Church, which our Church of England hath long since wished for, and Sir Edwyn Sandys saith might have been better restored in all the reformed Churches to its Primitive sincerity, than utterly abolished and neg­lected as in most places it is: for although we do justly charge the present Church of Rome for corrupting and degenerating from this ancient holy Discipline by their notorious abuses of it, particularly by their laying the main stress and efficacy of it, up­on the definitive sentence of Absolution, (which, according to the Trent Council, is given before any fruits of Repentance are produced, and requires no after penance, but a few Ave Maries and Pater Nosters, with some easie Alms to them that are a­ble, and a little fasting to such as are wil­ling; [Page 109] and sometimes for horrible Blas­phemies, and other lewdnesses, imposeth only the bare saying of their Beads thrice over, which they may dispatch too as they go in the streets:) their believing and teaching that by such like Penances the debt of temporal punishment is redeemed after the sin is pardoned, the people all this while making accompt of Confession as professed Drunkards do of vomiting, and the Priest using it as a Pick-lock to tyrannize over, and torture Mens Con­sciences, and make way for the dangerous delusions of Indulgences; yet, I say, no Reformed Church can excuse it self, which to avoid their extravagant abuses, is faln into the other extream, and lets the sober use of so excellent a piece of Discipline grow into utter desuetude and neglect: for it must not, it cannot be denied in the first place, but that the power of the Keys (to be executed not only in admitting Dis­ciples to Church-membership by Baptism, but also in rejecting Heretical, Schismati­cal and immoral Professours, and then ab­solving and re-admitting them into Com­munion, upon their unfeigned submission, and demonstrations of sincere Repentance) [Page 110] is founded immediately upon our Lords own Institution, and the Apostles and their Successours to the Worlds end, de­rive their Authority from, and act by the same Commission given them, St. Matth. 18.18. Whatsoever ye bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven; or as it is explained and renewed, St. Iohn 20.23. Whole sins soever ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose sins soever ye retain, they are retained.

Nor, Secondly, can it be denied by any Man that is acquainted with the Sects of the Montanists, Novatians, Donatists, and Meletians, and understands the pra­ctice of the Primitive Church, legible in the Writings of the Apostles, ancient Fa­thers and Councils, (particularly that of Elvira in Spain, held divers years before that at Nicaea, and therefore counted as ancient as any the Church hath) but that the cure of sin by penance is an unquesti­onable Tradition of the Apostles. Not to mention many other obvious Texts to that purpose, the most natural and prima­ry meaning of St. Paul's charge to Timo­thy, 1 Tim. 5.22. Lay hands suddenly on [Page 111] no man, neither be partaker of other mens sins, must needs be fetcht from that known Apostolical Custom, of admitting lapsed Christians to penance and the Prayers of the Church by imposition of hands.

Thirdly and lastly, Secret Confession of Sins (otherwise not notorious) in or­der to their cure, hath been the inviolate practice of the Western (bating their abu­ses aforesaid) and also of the Eastern Churches, particularly that of Constanti­nople, even to this day; and it is recom­mended and pressed as a duty incumbent on the generality of Christians, as well by the ancient Fathers as modern Authors both of the Roman Church, and also of the Reformation. The Augustine Con­fession says peremptorily, Impium esset ex Ecclesiâ tollere privatam Absolutionem, That it were an ungodly, a sacrilegious thing to rob the Church of Christ of private Absolution. And Chemnitius in his Exa­men Concil. Trid. gives a fivefold accompt of the use and profitableness of this Dis­cipline of private Confession.

1. For the information of the igno­rant concerning the true knowledge, the degrees and heinousness of sin, and the [Page 112] right way of performing repentance.

2. For Physick, viz. how each sin is so to be cured and mortified, that it may be avoided for the future, and what a­mendment of life is to be opposed to such and such sins.

3. For Counsel, that in doubtful cases Pastours may advise and instruct their Flocks out of Gods Word.

4. For Spiritual Comfort, to relieve disturbed Consciences.

Lastly, (because Absolution is to be given only to such as appear truly peni­tent) that the Pastour himself may be as­sured whether he ought to bind or loose.

Our Church of England in particular refuseth the benefit of it to none, urgeth it in extremis, and requires it for quieting of troubled Consciences, as is manifest in her several Offices of the Communion, and the Visitation of the sick. Notwithstand­ing all this, woful experience tells us, that the practice of this holy Discipline hath been declining every day more and more ever since that desperate opinion was first broacht in the World, That Men are justi­fied by believing they are predestinated to life, (which resolves all Christian Duties into [Page 113] a new notion of Faith, little different from a strong fancy) and is now grown almost utterly out of fashion amongst us, and ne­ver (I fear) likely to recover its ancient practise. Now the want of this most reasonable and necessary Discipline, is at­tended with very many dangerous conse­quences, such as these: The practise of religious Duties in general runs to decay: Men grow accustomed to, and at length hardned in their sins, by satisfying them­selves with a superficial repentance, or none at all: They content themselves with a palliative cure oft-times in stead of a sound one, by reason of their own ignorance or partiality; for every Man hath not skill enough to be his own Physitian; and they that have, do wilfully mistake sometimes a Cordial for a Corrosive: They rush un­worthily upon that Tremendum Evangelit Mysterium, (as Saint Augustine calls the Sacrament of the Eucharist) without due preparation: They fall into Heresies and Errours by leaning to their own under­standing, by mis-interpreting or mis-ap­plying the holy Scriptures, and not con­sulting with, and submitting to better Judgments: Their Consciences are seldom [Page 114] quiet, but like the troubled Sea, boysing up despairing thoughts, because they ap­ply not themselves to the Delegates and Commissaries of Him, whom the Winds and the Sea obeyed, I mean, the Priests of the living God: They venture their Sal­vation upon slender and uncertain Evi­dences, and hinder their Pastour from do­ing the best Offices he can for them, (and most likely to succeed) in order thereun­to: All that they will allow him, is, to shoot at rovers, and preach his heart out in cha­stising sin in general, whereas an occasio­nal private conference with Him now and then, were much more probable to effect their particular cure. No Man ever doubted, but one good remedy well ap­plied by a skilful Hand, is more likely to cure a Man of the Gout or Dropsie, than the hearing of five hundred Anatomy-Le­ctures to that purpose. And amongst ma­ny other ill conseqences, this is evidently one, That the power of the Keys is in part taken away, the due Authority of the Priesthood restrained and impaired, and consequently their esteem lessen'd, their Function not valued as it ought to be by the People, and their Persons sometimes [Page 115] exposed to Contempt: And therefore let but this ancient holy Discipline be restored amongst us, either by a publick Act of the Church, or by the unanimous practise of those that profess themselves of our Com­munion, and then let common sense judge if these effects will not necessarily follow upon it: The Life of Religion will quick­ly grow more into fashion: Men will be more careful of discharging their Baptis­mal Vow, more afraid of sin, more sin­cere in their Repentance, Fastings, Pray­ers, and Works of Charity, and conse­quently the People must needs believe that their Pastours belong to God more than or­dinary Folks; they cannot but have a hearty respect, and honourable esteem for their Spiritual Guides and Physitians, who watch daily over their Souls, by whose prudent Conduct, faithful Advices, and ghostly Comfort, they live quietly and peaceably here in all Godliness and Hone­sty, and in the end attain to Everlasting Life.