Is there no mean to train and nurse up ministers, for the yield of the universities will not serve, though they were never so well governed; to train them, I say, not to preach, for that every man confidently adventureth to do, but to preach soundly, and to handle the Scriptures with wisdom and judgment? I know prophesying was subject to great abuse, and would be more abused now; because heat of contentions is increased: but I say the only reason of the abuse was, because there was admitted to it a popular auditory; and it was not contained within a private conference of ministers. Other things might be spoken of. I pray God to inspire the bishops with a fervent love and care of the people; and that they may not so much urge things in controversy, as things out of controversy, which all men confess to be gracious and good. And thus much for the second point.

Now, as to the third point, of unbrotherly proceeding on either part, it is directly contrary to my purpose to amplify wrongs: it is enough to note and number them; which I do also, to move compassion and remorse on the offending side, and not to animate challengers and complaints on the other. And this point, as reason is, doth chiefly touch that side which can do most: Injuriæ potentiorum sunt; injuries come from them that have the upper hand.

The wrongs of them which are possessed of the government of the Church towards the other, may hardly be dissembled or excused: they have charged them as though they denied tribute to Cæsar, and withdrew from the civil magistrate the obedience which they have ever performed and taught. They have sorted and coupled them with the Family of love, whose heresies they have laboured to destroy and confute. They have been swift of credit to receive accusations against them, from those that have quarrelled with them, but for speaking against sin and vice. Their accusations and inquisitions have been strict, swearing men to blanks and generalities, not included within compass of matter certain, which the party which is to take the oath may comprehend, which is a thing

captious and strainable. Their urging of subscription to their own articles, is but lacessere, et irritare morbos Ecclesiæ, which otherwise would spend and exercise themselves. Non consensum quærit sed dissidium, qui, quod factis præstatur, in verbis exigit : He seeketh not unity, but division, which exacteth that in words, which men are content to yield in action. And it is true, there are some which, as I am persuaded, will not easily offend by inconformity, who notwithstanding make some conscience to subscribe; for they know this note of inconstancy and defection from that which they have long held, shall disable them to do that good which otherwise they might do: for such is the weakness of many, that their ministry should be thereby discredited. As for their easy silencing of them, in such great scarcity of preachers, it is to punish the people, and not them. Ought they not, I mean the bishops, to keep one eye open, to look upon the good that those men do, not to fix them both upon the hurt that they suppose cometh by them? Indeed, such as are intemperate and incorrigible, God forbid they should be permitted to preach: but shall every inconsiderate word, sometimes captiously watched, and for the most part hardly enforced, be as a forfeiture of their voice and gift in preaching? As for sundry particular molestations, I take no pleasure to recite them. If a minister shall be troubled for saying in baptism, do you believe? for, dost thou believe? If another shall be called in question for praying for her majesty, without the additions of her stile; whereas the very form of prayer in the book of Common-Prayer hath, "Thy servant Elizabeth," and no more: If a third shall be accused, upon these words uttered touching the controversies, tollatur lex, et fiat certamen, whereby was meant, that the prejudice of the law removed, either reasons should be equally compared, of calling the people to sedition and mutiny, as if he had said, Away with the law, and try it out with force: If these and other like particulars be true, which I have but by rumour, and cannot affirm; it is to be lamented that they should labour amongst us with sa

little comfort. I know restrained governments are better than remiss; and I am of his mind that said, Better is it to live where nothing is lawful, than where all things are lawful. I dislike that laws should not be continued, or disturbers be unpunished: but laws are likened to the grape, that being too much pressed yields an hard and unwholesome wine. Of these things I must say; Ira viri non operatur justitiam Dei; the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

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

The fourth point wholly pertaineth to them which impugn the present ecclesiastical government; who although they have not cut themselves off from the body and communion of the Church, yet do they affect certain cognisances and differences, wherein they seek to correspond amongst themselves, and to be separate from others. And it is truly said, tam sunt mores quidam schismatici, quam dogmata schismatica; there be as well schismatical fashions as opinions. →First, they have impropriated unto themselves the names of zealous, sincere, and reformed; as if all others were cold minglers of holy things and profane, and friends of abuses. Yea, be a man endued with great virtues, and fruitful in good works; yet if he concur not with them, they term him, in derogation, a civil and moral man, and compare him to Socrates,

or some heathen philosopher: whereas the wisdom of the Scriptures teacheth us otherwise; namely, to judge and denominate men religious according to their works of the second table; because they of the first are often counterfeit, and practised in hypocrisy. So St. John saith, that a man doth vainly boast of loving God whom he never saw, if he love not his brother whom he hath seen. And St. James saith, This is true religion, to visit the fatherless and the widow. So as that which is with them but philosophical and moral, is, in the apostle's phrase, true religion and Christianity. As in affection they challenge the said virtues of zeal and the rest; so in knowledge they attribute unto themselves light and perfection. They say, the Church of England in King Edward's time, and in the beginning of her majesty's reign, was but in the cradle; and the bishops in those times did somewhat grope for day-break, but that maturity and fulness of light proceedeth from themselves. So Sabinius, bishop of Heraclea, a Macedonian heretic, said, that the fathers in the council of Nice were but infants and ignorant men: that the Church was not so perfect in their decrees as to refuse that farther ripeness of knowledge which time had revealed. And as they censure virtuous men by the names of civil and moral, so do they censure men truly and godly wise, who see into the vanity of their affections, by the name of politics; saying, that their wisdom is but carnal and savouring of man's brain. So likewise if a preacher preach with care and meditation, I speak not of the vain scholastical manner of preaching, but soundly indeed, ordering the matter he handleth distinctly for memory, deducting and drawing it down for direction, and authorising it with strong proofs and warrants, they censure it as a form of speaking not becoming the simplicity of the gospel, and refer it to the reprehension of St. Paul, speaking of the enticing speech of man's wisdom.

Now for their own manner of preaching, what is it? Surely they exhort well, and work compunction of mind, and bring men well to the question, Viri,

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

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

They forget that there are sins on the right hand, as well as on the left; and that the word is doubleedged, and cutteth on both sides, as well the profane transgressions as the superstitious observances. Who doubteth but that it is as unlawful to shut where God hath opened, as to open where God hath shut; to bind where God hath loosed, as to loose where God hath bound? Amongst men it is commonly as ill taken to turn back favours, as to disobey commandments. In this kind of zeal, for example, they have pronounced generally, and without difference, all untruths unlawful; notwithstanding, that the midwives are directly reported to have been blessed for their excuse; and Rahab is said by faith to have concealed