common principles of religion which are acknowledged by us all: But jealousies and carnal counsels would not permit them to hearken to this motion.

3. And as concerning that epistle before my paper to the Quakers, I further answer, that by Separatists there I plainly mean church-dividers; even all that make unnecessary divisions in or from the churches of Christ, whom the apostle so earnestly beseecheth us to mark and avoid, (Rom. xvi. 17,) and which he calleth them carnal for, and so earnestly contendeth against, 1 Cor. i; ii; iii; and in many other places in his epistles. And if this be a tolerable sin, then the unity of the church is not a necessary thing; and then the apostles would never have condemned this sin as they have done. Do we all so sensibly smart by the effects of these sins, and is the church of Christ among us brought into such a torn and endangered condition by them, so that we are in no small danger of falling all into the hands of the common adversaries? Is so hopeful and chargeable a reformation so far frustrated by these men, and yet must we not open our mouths to tell them of it? May we not tell them of it, when we are bleeding by their hands? Is it tolerable in them to cut and wound, and let out our blood, and is it unpeaceableness in us to tell them that we suffer by them, and to beseech them to repent and to have compassion on the church of Christ? Must we be patient to be ruined by them, and have they not the patience to hear of it? What remedy? Let them be silent that dare; for I profess I dare not. I must tell them that this height of pride hath been in their ancestors a concomitant of schism. A poor drunkard or swearer will more patiently hear of his sin, than many that we hope are godly will of theirs, when once they are tainted with this sin. But godliness was never made to be the credit of men's sins: nor is sin to be let alone, or well thought of, when it can but get into a godly man. Shall we hate them most, whom we are bound to love best? and shall we shew it by forbearing our plain rebuke, and suffering their sin upon them? It must not be: however they take it in their sick distemper, it must not be. No man that erreth doth think that he erreth: these men are confident themselves that they are in the right. But the sober, prudent servants of Christ, that have escaped their disease, do see their error; and England feeleth it, and that at the very

heart: What! must we die by their hand, and our very heart-blood be let out, and the Gospel delivered up to the adversaries, before they will believe that they have done us wrong? or before they will endure to hear us tell them of it? If the ages to come do not say more against the ways of these mistaken men, than I have done in that epistle, and if either mercy or judgment do not bring them one day to think or speak more sharply of themselves, then I must confess myself quite out in my prognostics.

Another sort that will be offended with me, are some of the divines of the prelatical way, whom I had no mind to offend, nor to dishonour: but if necessary duty will do it, what remedy? If they cannot bear with just admonition, I must bear with their impatience. But I must tell them, that I spoke not by hearsay, but from sight and feeling. It is more tolerable in an Englishman to speak such things, that hath seen the sad work that was made in England, the silencing of most godly, able men, the persecution even of the peaceable, the discountenance of godliness, and the insulting scorn of the profanest in the land, than for a foreigner that hath known of this but by hearsay. When we remember what sort of ministers the land abounded with, while the ablest and most diligent men were cast out, (of which matters we cannot be ignorant, if there were no records remaining of their attested accusations,) we must needs take leave to tell the world that the souls of men and the welfare of the church were not so contemptible in our eyes, as that we should have no sense of these things, or should manifest no dislike of them, nor once invite the guilty to repent. And if you think my language harsh, I will transcribe some words of a far wiser man, and leave it to your consideration how far they concern the present case, or justify my free and plain expressions.

Gildas de Excid. Britan. edit. Polid. Virgil. sub fine. Quid plura? Fertur vobis in medium Matthiæ in confusionem vestram, exemplum, sanctorum quoq; apostolorum electione, vel judicio Christi, non propria voluntate sortiti, ad quod cæci effecti non videtis, quia longè à meritis ejus distatis, dum in morem et affectum Judæ traditoris sponte corruitis. Apparet ergò eum qui vos sacerdotes sciens ex corde, dicit non esse eximium Christianum. Sanè quod sentio proferam. Posset quidem lenior fieri increpatio, sed

quid prodest vulnus manu tantum palpare, unguentove ungere quod tumore jam vel fœtore sibi horrescens cauterio, et publico ignis medicamine eget? Si tamen ullo modo sanari possit, ægro nequaquam medelam quærente et ob hoc medico longius recedente. O inimici Dei, et non sacerdotes; ô licitatores malorum, et non pontifices; traditores, et non sanctorum apostolorum successores; impugnatores, et non Christi ministri. Auscultâstis quidem secundæ lectionis apostoli Pauli verborum sonum, sed nullo modo monita virtutemque servâstis, et simulachrorum more, quæ non vident, neque audiunt, eodem die alteri astitistis, licet ille tunc et quotidiè vobis intonaret. Fratres, fidelis sermo est, et omni acceptione dignus. Ille dixit, fidelem, et dignum, vos ut infidelem et indignum sprevistis. Si quis episcopatum cupit, bonum opus cupit. Episcopatum magnoperè avaritiæ gratiâ, non spiritualis profectus obtentu, cupitis, et bonum opus illi condignum nequaquam habetis. Oportet ergo hujusmodi irreprehensibilem esse: In hoc namque sermone lachrymis magis, quam verbis opus est, ac si dixisset apostolus eum esse omnibus irreprehensibiliorem debere. Unius uxoris virum. Quid ita apud nos, quoque contemnitur, quasi non audiretur vel idem dicere. Et virum uxoris sobrium, prudentem? Quis etiam ex vobis hoc aliquando inesse sibi saltem optavit. Hospitalem? Id forte casu evenerit, popularis auræ potius, quam præcepti gratiâ factum. Non prodest, Domino salvatore ita dicente. Amen dico vobis, receperunt meredem suam. Ornatum, non vinolentum, non percussorem, sed modestum, non litigiosum, non cupidum? O feralis immutatio, ô horrenda præceptorum cœlestium conculcatio; nonne infatigabiliter ad hæc expugnanda, vel potius obruenda actuum verborumque arma corripitis, pro quibus conservandis, atque firmandis, si necesse fuisset, et pœna ultrò subeunda, et vita ponenda erat? sed videamus et sequentia. Domum suam (inquit) benè regentem, filios habentem, subditos in omni castitate. Ergo imperfecta est patrum castitas, si non item et filiorum accumuletur? Sed quid erit, ubi nec pater, nec filius, mali genitoris exemplo privatus, conspicitur castus? Si quis autem domui suæ præesse nescit, quomodo ecclesiæ Dei diligentiam adhibebit? Hæc sunt verba quæ indubitatis affectibus approbantur. Diaconos similiter pudicos, non bilingues, non vino multo deditos, non turpe lucrum sectantes, habentes ministe

rium fidei, in conscientia pura. Hi autem probentur primum, et sic ministrent nullum crimen habentes. His nimirùm horrescens diu immorari, unum veridice possum dicere. Quin hæc omnia in contrarios actus mutantur, ita ut clerici quod non absque dolore cordis, fateor, impudici, bilingues, ebrii, turpis lucri cupidi, habentes fidem, et ut verius dicam, infidelitatem, in conscientia impura non probati in bono, sed in malo præsciti ministrantes, et innumera crimina habentes, sacro ministerio adsciscantur. Audistis etiam illo die, quo multo dignius, multoque rectius erat, ut ad carcerem vel catastam pœnalem quam ad sacerdotium traheremini domino scitante, quem se esse putarunt discipuli, Petrum respondisse. Tu es Christus filius Dei, eique dominum pro tali confessione, dixisse. Beatus es Simon Barjona, quia caro et sanguis non revelavit tibi, sed pater meus, qui in cœlis est. Ergo Petrus à Deo Patre doctus rectè Christum confitetur. Vos autem moniti à patre vestro diabolo iniquè, salvatorem malis actibus denegatis. Verò sacerdoti dicitur: Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram, ædificabo ecclesiam meam. Vos quidem assimilamini viro stulto, qui ædificavit domum suam, super arenam. Notandum verò est, quòd insipientibus in ædificanda domo, arenarum pendulæ mobilitati Dominus non co-operatur, secundùm illud. Fecerunt sibi reges; et non per me. Itidemque quod sequitur eadem sonat dicendo. Et portæ inferi non prævalebunt, ejusque peccata intelliguntur. De vestra quidem exitiabili factura pronunciantur. Venerunt flumina, flaverunt venti, et impegerunt in domum illam, et cecidit, et fuit ruina ejus magna. Petro ejusque successoribus dicit Dominus, et tibi dabo clavis regni cælorum. Vobis verò; non novi vos, discedite à me, operarii iniquitatis, ut seperati sinistræ partis hodi eatis in ignem æternum: Itemque omni sancto sacerdoti promittitur: Et quæcunque solveris super terram, erunt soluta et in cœlis; et quæcunque ligaveris super terram, erunt ligata et in cœlis. Sed quomodo vos aliquid solvetis, ut sit solutum, et in cœlis, à cœlo ob scelera adempti, et immanium peccatorum funibus compediti? Ut Solomon quoque ait, funiculis peccatorum suorum unusquisque constringitur. Qua ratione aliquid in terra ligabitis, quod supra mundum etiam ligetur, propter vosmetipsos, qui ita ligati iniquitatibus, in hoc mundo tenemini, ut in cœlis ne

quaquam ascendatis, sed in infausta tartari ergastula non conversi in hac vita ad dominum, decidatis. Nec sibi quisquam sacerdotum de corporis mundi solum conscientia supplaudat, cum eorum quibus præest, si propter ejus imperitiam, seu desidiam, seu adultationem, perierint in die judicii de ejusdem manibus veluti interfectoris animæ exquirantur. Quia nec dulcior mors, quam quæ infertur ab unoquoque homineque malo, alioquin non dixisset Apostolus velut paternum legatum suis successoribus derelinquens. Mundus ego sum ab omnium sanguine, non enim subterfugi, quo minus annuntiarem vobis omne ministerium Dei. Multum namque usu ac frequentia peccatorum inebriati, et incessanter irruentibus vobis scelerum cumulatorum, ac si undis quassati unum veluti post naufragium, in qua ad vivorum terram evadatis, pœnitentiæ tabulam toto animi nisu exquirite, ut avertatur furor Domini à vobis, misericorditer dicentis, Nolo mortem peccatoris, sed ut convertatur et vivat. Ipse omnipotens Deus totius consolationis et misericordiæ paucissimos bonos pastores conservet ab omni malo, et municipes faciat civitatis Hierusalem cœlestis, hoc est, sanctorum omnium congregationis, Pater, et Filius, et Spiritus Sanctus, cui sit honor, et gloria in secula seculorum. Amen.'

If the English translation of this book (for translated it is long ago) do fall into the hands of the vulgar, they will see what language the British clergy received from one that was neither a censorious railer, nor schismatically selfopinionated.

Perhaps some will say, 'That the matter is not much amended, when in former times we were almost all of a mind; and now we have so many religions that we know not well whether we have any at all.'

Answ. 1. Every different opinion is not another religion. 2. This is the common Popish argument against reformation, as if it were better that men believed nothing 'fide divina,' than inquire after truth, for fear of misbelief: and as if they would have all ungodly, that they might be all of a mind. I am sure that the most of the people in England wherever I came, did make religion, and the reading of the Scripture, or speaking of the way to heaven, the matter of their bitter scorn and reproach. And would you have us all of that mind again, for fear of differences? a charitable wish!—3. If