the Lives of many of us? And that not for any Riots, Treafons, Immoralities, or Seditions, that we were guilty of, but for Preaching the Word of God, and Praying, according to the Duty of the Office, to which we had been folemnly dedicated and devoted, and with thofe few that had courage enough to make fuch an adventure with us? Were not the Statutes that had been made in former Reigns against Papifts, turn'd with their fharpeft edge against us Proteftants? Was not both City and Country fill'd with Spies and Informers to watch us in every corner, and the rage of most of the Leading Party, both of the Clergy and Others, flaming against us, and very many enriching themfelves with our Spoils? What Tragical particular accounts will the Hiftory of the late Reigns give you of these things, both in England, Scotland and Ireland? Yet now to fay there was any Sharpness in all this, you tell us, becomes not a good Subject; fo admirable an Arcanum is your Spirit of Charity. What a Comfortable Doctrine of Paffive Obedience, and how Edifying would this have been to the Fellows in Magdalen Colledge, or to the Bishops in the Tower, or to Thofe that gave the Prince of Orange that Solemn Imploring Invitation to come over to affert and defend their ravifhed Rights and Liberties, against that Regal Power, to which they had fworn Allegiance, when they apprehended it too ftrong for them. And would not the poor Proteftants in France, and in all the other Perfecuted Churches of the Reformation, to whom this Dotrine agrees, as well as to us, admire the heavenly Charity that you exprefs in it? Was it not erough that we bore all with Patience, but may we nor, without further danger, call it Sharp? No, you tell us, it was but a Seeming Rigour, and that but in the Opinion of fome. Had it been your own Cafe, you would not have taken it well to have been told D..

But

You should first have answer'd Mr. Lock's Three Letters of Toleration.

But to prove the Juftice of thefe Penal Laws, and the Unreasonablenefs, yea,the Difloyalty of our calling them Sharp, you pretend to Inform us, That fome Doctrines prejudicial to Civil Government, being advanc'd by the Presbyterians, and confirm'd by the Practices of fome of that Sect, it was thought fit, that a stricter hand should be kept upon them: But what thefe Doctrines or Practices of the Presbyterians were, and by whom Preach'd and Practiced, you cannot, or will not tell us Only that in Queen Elizabeth's time, Serjeant Puckering reprefented them to the Parliament as Perfons that acted the fame part more openly, which the Fefuites did closely; and that however in other things they pretended to be at War with the Jefuites, yet in debafing their Princes Authority they were agreed: Here's a general and indefinite Charge, or report of a Charge of Perfons and Things for about a Hundred years ago, which, till it be particularly prov'd, muft in equity and reafon pafs for a flander. Yet were it as true of the Presbyterians of that Age, as it is notorioufly falfe, we cannot understand by what Juftice the Guilt and Punishment fhould be entail'd on us, unless it could be prov'd that we have been perfonally guilty of the fame Crimes, which any ones Charity but yours would think that Forty years Obfervation and Provocation were fufficient to make the Experiment on us.

But by a long Quotation out of Bishop Burnet's Hiftory of the Reformation, of the candid Relation (as you call it) of Secretary Walfingham, concerning thofe that were called Puritans in the days of Queen Elizabeth, you open the great Sore, where all the Anguish lies. And tell us, That there were thofe among the Puritans that inveigh'd against Pluralities, Non-refidence, yea, and the Immoralities and Ignorance of the Clergy too,] that refus'd the Ufe of

(a)

Tome

fome Ceremonies and Rites as Superftitious; yea, that call'd in question the Superiority of Bishops, and pretended to a Democracy in the Church, on which account their Course was perceiv'd to be dangerous and very popular. Yet this was not all, but there iffued from them, that affirm'd the Confent of the Magiftrate was not to be attended, when under a pretence of a Confeffion, they combin'd themselves by Claffes and Subfcripfions When they defcended into that vile and bafe means of defacing the Government of the Church, by ridiculous Pafquils: When they began to make many Subjects in doubts to take Oaths: When they began to vaunt of their Strength, and Number of their Partizans and Followers, and to ufe Comminations. Then it appear'd to be no more Zeal, no more Confcience, but meer Faction and Divifion. And tho' therefore the State was compell'ď to hold fomewhat a barder band to restrain them than before, yet was it with as great Moderation as the peace or fate of the Church could permit. Now from all this give me leave to obferve,

1. That 'tis an eafy matter to find a Stone to throw at a Dog, or to form Accufations, and aggravate the Faults of fuch as ftand in the way of Mens ambitious Designs, and to trample on those over whom they have by their Princes Favour gotten the Ascendent, tho' it be very Unchriftian and Ungenerous fo to do. And as for Secretary Walfingham, who stood in fo good a Poft in that Queens Service, nothing could be expected from him, but what was agreeable to the prevailing Humour of the Times, and the Settlement of himself in his Court-Favour, fo that his Teftimony hath too much of the Byas to be of any great fignificancy in this

cafe.

2. That it was in Queen Elizabeth's Time that the Court-Party, of the Church of England was fo griev'd at these things, when the Proteftant Reformation began firft to take root in these Kingdoms,

after

after that fhort Dawning of it that appear'd under the Reign of Edward the VI. and when Rome and Hell did their utmoft, by all means, and in all Shapes of Religious Zeal and Pretenfions to destroy the Reformation in its Infancy, and therefore not to be wonder'd at, nor yet to be defended, as to any of the ill Designs or Extravagancies of the Open or Secret Enemies of it.

3. That here is nothing prov'd against the Accufed either in Doctrine or Practice, that was prejudicial to the Honour, Authority, or Safety of the Civil Government. 'Twas what you call the Church of England that made all the Roar against these Men, as it doth still against us. And all the flanderous Accufations that could be rais'd, all the Jealoufies that could be fuggefted, and the flattering Infinuations that could be practiced, were crafti ly and zealously us'd to draw the Civil Powers to their Church-Party, and which they had then the Advantage above others to do.

4. That whatever Errours or Extravagencies any of those that then feparated from the Church of England, or declar'd their Diflike of many things in it, were, thro' Miftakes of Judgment, or Prejudices form'd and confirm'd in them by Epifcopal Rigours and Perfecutions, or any unfeen hand the Agents of the Church of Rome had with the Weaker and more Paffionate of them; and whatever Erroneous or Schifmatical Doctrines were vented by any of them, they are all laid to the Charge of the Presbyterians, tho' never fo far from the Guilt of thefe things. And against these it is that the Cry is ftill made, as Enemies to the Government, which is as full of Juftice and Fair-dealing, as Flattering and Tricking is of Honesty:

But to fet these things in a truer Light, it would be necessary to give the Reader fome fhort Abridgment of the History of thefe Times, and which I (a2)

would

would do, had it not been already done by other hands. Yet for the Vindication of the Truth, and the fatisfaction of fuch as have not yet read these things, I fhall here infert a brief Synopfis of the chief Matters of Fact, that concern our present Controverfie.

In the latter end of the Reign of King Henry VIII. there began to be fome Foundation laid Vid. Hift, of for a Church-Reformation, tho' more Nonconform. upon a private Quarrel with the Bishop of Rome, than from any hearty Love to the Thing it felf, and confifted only in fuppreffing of Monafteries, and the Pope's Supremacy, and all Appeals to Rome, and Printing the Bible in English, which was all done on Politick Reasons of Court ;; but in Doctrine, Worship or Difcipline, there was little or no Reformation, as appears by the Six Articles on which Mrs. Anne Askew, Lambert, and feveral others, fuffer'd Martyrdom. So that Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley, and most of the chief Inftruments of the Reformation, were at first but Lutherans, and no wonder then, that the first Reformed Liturgy retain'd fo much of the old Popif Prayers, Rites and Ceremonies, and which were continued in Queen Elizabeth's Reformation, partly by the old Lutheran Principles, which fome of the moit Zealous, Reformers of this time adher'd to, and partly for the great Reverence they had for Cranmer, Latimer, and thofe others, who had fuffer'd Martyrdom under Queen Mary.

When King Edward his Succeffor came to the Throne, who engag'd in this Work on a better Principle, and would doubtless have carried it to a good degree of Perfection, had not the Stiffness of fome Leading Church men, and the Shortness of that invaluable Life, prevented him; the whole Nation being, as it were, born at once, and juft come out of that difmal State of Popery, and fo few