8. He lives not to himself, yet of all others he is most wise for himself. He denieth himself often, yet no man loveth himself so well as he. He is most reproached, yet most honoured. He hath most afflictions, and most comforts.

9. The more injury his enemies do him, the more advantages he gains by them. The more he forsakes worldly things, the more he enjoys them.

10. He is the most temperate of all men, yet fares most deliciously; he lends and gives most freely, yet he is the greatest usurer; he is meek towards all men, yet inexorable by men. He is the best child, husband, brother, friend; yet hates father and mother, brother and sister. He loves all men as himself, yet hates some men with a perfect hatred.

11. He desires to have more grace than any man hath in the world, yet is truly sorrowful when he seeth any man have less than himself; he knoweth no man after the flesh, yet gives all men their due respects; he knoweth if he please man he cannot be the servant of Christ; yet for Christ's sake he pleaseth all men in all things. He is a peacemaker, yet is a continual fighter, and is an irreconcilable enemy.

12. He believes him to be worse than an infidel that provides not for his family, yet himself lives and dies without care. He accounts all his superiors, yet stands stiffly upon authority. He is severe to his children, because he loveth them; and by being favourable unto his enemy, he revengeth himself upon him.

13. He believes the angels to be more excellent creatures than himself, and yet accounts them his servants. He believes that he receives many good things by their means, and yet he neither prays for their assistance, nor offers them thanks, which he doth not disdain to do to the meanest christian.

14. He believes himself to be a king, how mean soever he be and how great soever he be, yet he thinks himself not too good to be a servant to the poorest saint.

15. He is often in prison, yet always at liberty; a freeman, though a servant. He loves not honour amongst men, yet highly prizeth a good name.

16. He believes that God hath bidden every man that doth him good to do so; he yet of any man is the most thankful to them that do aught for him. He would lay down his life to save the soul of his enemy, yet will not adventure upon one sin to save the life of him who saved his.

17. He swears to his own hinderance, and changeth not; yet knoweth that his oath cannot tie him to sin.

18. He believes Christ to have no need of any thing he doth, yet maketh account that he doth relieve Christ in all his acts of charity. He knoweth he can do nothing of himself, yet labours to work out his own salvation. He professeth he can do nothing, yet as truly professeth he can do all things he knoweth that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, yet believeth he shall go to heaven both body and soul.

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19. He trembles at God's word, yet counts it sweeter to him than honey and the honey-comb, and dearer than thousands of gold and silver.

20. He believes that God will never damn him, and yet fears God for being able to cast him into hell. He knoweth he shall not be saved by, nor for, his good works, yet he doth all the good works he can.

21. He knoweth God's providence is in all things, yet is so diligent in his calling and business, as if he were to cut out the thread of his happiness. He believes before-hand that God hath purposed what he shall be, and that nothing can make him to alter his purpose; yet prays and endeavours, as if he would force God to save him for ever.

22. He prays and labours for that which he is confident God means to give; and the more assured he is, the more earnest he prays, for that he knows he shall never obtain, and yet gives not over. He prays and labours for that which he knows he shall be no less happy without; he prays with all his heart not to be led into temptation, yet rejoiceth when he is fallen into it; he believes his prayers are heard, even when they are denied, and gives thanks for that which he prays against.

23. He hath within him both flesh and spirit, yet he is not a double-minded man; he is often led captive by the law of sin, yet it never gets dominion over him; he cannot sin, yet he can do nothing without sin. He doth nothing against his will, yet maintains he doth what he would not. He wavers and doubteth, yet obtains.

24. He is often tossed and shaken, yet is as mount Sion; he is a serpent and a dove; a lamb and a lion; a reed and a cedar. He is sometimes so troubled, that he thinks nothing to be true in religion; yet if he did think so, he could not at all be troubled. He thinks sometimes that God hath no mercy for him, yet resolves to die in the pursuit of it. He believes, like Abraham, against hope, and though he cannot answer God's logic, yet, with the woman of Canaan, he hopes to prevail with the rhetoric of importunity.

25. He wrestles, and yet prevails; and though yielding himself unworthy of the least blessing he enjoys, yet, Jacob-like, he will not let him go without a new blessing. He sometimes thinks himself to have no grace at all, and yet how poor and afflicted soever he be besides, he would not change conditions with the most prosperous man under heaven, that is a manifest worldling.

26. He thinks sometimes that the ordinances of God do him no good, yet he would rather part with his life than be deprived of them.

27. He was born dead; yet so that it had been murder for any to have taken his life away. After he began to live, he was ever dying.

28. And though he hath an eternal life begun in him, yet he makes account he hath a death to pass through.

29. He counts self-murder a heinous sin, yet is ever busied in crucifying the flesh, and in putting to death his earthly members: not doubting but there will come a time of glory, when he shall be esteemed

tain to time:" and if we did but know the virtue of silence and slowness to speak, commended by St. James, our controversies of themselves would close up and grow together: but most especially, if we would leave the overweening and turbulent humours of these times, and revive the blessed proceeding of the apostles and fathers of the primitive church, which was, in the like and greater cases, not to enter into assertions and positions, but to deliver counsels and advices, we should need no other remedy at all: "si eadem consulis, frater, quæ affirmas, consulenti debetur reverentia, cum non debeatur fides affirmanti;" brother, if that which you set down as an assertion, you would deliver by way of advice, there were reverence due to your counsel, whereas faith is not due to your affirmation. St. Paul was content to speak thus," Ego, non Dominus,” “I, and not the Lord:""Et, secundum consilium meum;" "according to my counsel." But now men do too lightly say, "Non ego, sed Dominus;" "not I, but the Lord" yea, and bind it with a heavy denunciation of his judgments, to terrify the simple, which have not sufficiently understood out of Solomon, that "the causeless curse shall not come."

Therefore seeing the accidents are they which breed the peril, and not the things themselves in their own nature, it is meet the remedies be applied unto them, by opening what it is on either part, that keepeth the wound green, and formalizeth both sides to a farther opposition, and worketh an indisposition in men's minds to be reunited: wherein no accusation is pretended; but I find in reason, that peace is best built upon a repetition of wrongs; and in example, that the speeches which have been made by the wisest men, "de concordia ordinum," have not abstained from reducing to memory the extremities used on both parts; so as it is true which is said, "Qui pacem tractat non repetitis conditionibus dissidii, is magis animos hominum dulcedine pacis fallit, quam æquitate componit."

And first of all, it is more than time that there were an end and surcease made of this immodest and deformed manner of writing lately entertained, whereby matter of religion is handled in the style of the stage. Indeed, bitter and earnest writing must not hastily be condemned; for men cannot contend coldly, and without affection, about things which they hold dear and precious. A politic man may write from his brain without touch and sense of his heart; as in a speculation that appertaineth not unto him; but a feeling christian will express in his words a character of zeal or love. The latter of which, as I could wish rather embraced, being more proper for these times, yet is the former warranted also by great examples.

But to leave all reverent and religious compassion towards evils, or indignation towards faults, and to turn religion into a comedy or satire; to search and rip up wounds with a laughing countenance, to intermix scripture and scurrility sometimes in one sentence, is a thing far from the devout reverence of a christian, and scant beseeming the honest regard of a sober man. "Non est major confusio, quam serii et joci." "There is no greater confusion than

the confounding of jest and earnest." The majesty of religion, and the contempt and deformity of things ridiculous, are things as distant as things may be. Two principal causes have I ever known of atheism; curious controversies, and profane scoffing: now that these two are joined in one, no doubt that sect will make no small progression.

And here I do much esteem the wisdom and religion of that bishop which replied to the first pamphlet of this kind, who remembered that a fool was to be answered, but not by becoming like unto him; and considered the matter which he handled, and not the person with whom he dealt.

Job, speaking of the majesty and gravity of a judge in himself, saith, "If I did smile, they believed it not:" as if he should have said, If I diverted, or glanced upon conceit of mirth, yet men's minds were so possessed with a reverence of the action in hand, as they could not receive it. Much more ought not this to be amongst bishops and divines disputing about holy things. And therefore as much do I mislike the invention of him who, as it seemeth, pleased himself in it as in no mean policy, that these men are to be dealt withal at their own weapons, and pledged in their own cup. This seemed to him as profound a device, as when the cardinal Sansovino counselled Julius the second to encounter the council of Pisa with the council of Lateran; or as lawful a challenge as Mr. Jewel made to confute the pretended catholics by the fathers: but those things will not excuse the imitation of evil in another. It should be contrariwise with us, as Cæsar said, “Nil malo, quam eos similes esse sui, et me mei." But now, "Dum de bonis contendimus, de malis consentimus;" "while we differ about good things, we resemble in evil."

Surely, if I were asked of these men, who were the more to be blamed, I should percase remember the proverb, that the second blow maketh the fray, and the saying of an obscure fellow; "Qui replicat, multiplicat:" he that replieth, multiplieth. But I would determine the question with this sentence; "Alter principium malo dedit, alter modum abstulit ;" "By the one means we have a beginning, and by the other we shall have none end."

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And truly, as I do marvel that some of those preachers which call for reformation, whom I am far from wronging so far as to join them with these scoffers, do not publish some declaration, whereby they may satisfy the world, that they dislike their cause should be thus solicited; so I hope assuredly, that my lords of the clergy have none intelligence with this interlibelling, but do altogether disallow that their credit should be thus defended. though I observe in one of them many glosses, whereby the man would insinuate himself into their favours, yet I find it to be ordinary, that many pressing and fawning persons do misconjecture of the humours of men in authority, and many times, "Veneri immolant suem," " they seek to gratify them with that which they most dislike:" for I have great reason to satisfy myself touching the judgment of my lords the bishops in this matter, by that which was written by one of them, which I

Their taxations arise not all from one coast; they have many and different enemies ready to invent slander, more ready to amplify it, and most ready to believe it. And "Magnes mendacii credulitas ;" "Credulity is the adamant of lies." But if any be, against whom the supreme Bishop hath not a few things, but many things; if any have lost his first love; if any be neither hot nor cold; if any have stumbled too fondly at the threshold, in such sort that he cannot sit well, that entered ill; it is time they return whence they are fallen, and confirm the things that remain.

Great is the weight of this fault; "et eorum causa abhorrebant homines a sacrificio Domini:" "and for their cause did men abhor the adoration of God." But howsoever it be, those which have sought to deface them, and cast contempt upon them, are not to be excused.

It is the precept of Solomon, that the rulers be not reproached; no, not in our thought: but that we draw our very conceit into a modest interpretation of their doings. The holy angel would give no sentence of blasphemy against the common slanderer, but said, "Increpet te Dominus," "The Lord rebuke thee." The apostle St. Paul, though against him that did pollute sacred justice with tyrannous violence, did justly denounce the judgment of God, saying, "Percutiet te Dominus," "The Lord will strike thee;" yet in saying " paries dealbate," he thought he had gone too far, and retracted it: whereupon a learned father said, "ipsum quamvis inane nomen, et umbram sacerdotis expavit."

The ancient councils and synods, as is noted by the ecclesiastical story, when they deprived any bishop, never recorded the offence; but buried it in perpetual silence: only Cham purchased his curse by revealing his father's disgrace; and yet a much greater fault is it to ascend from their person to their calling, and draw that in question. Many good fathers spake rigorously and severely of the unworthiness of bishops; as if presently it did forfeit, and cease their office. One saith, "Sacerdotes nominamur, et non sumus," "We are called priests, but priests we are not." Another saith, "Nisi bonum opus amplectaris, episcopus esse non potes;" "Except thou undertake the good work, thou canst not be a bishop;" yet they meant nothing less than to move doubt of their calling or ordination.

The second occasion of controversies, is the nature and humour of some men. The church never wanteth a kind of persons, which love the salutation of Rabbi, master; not in ceremony or compliment, but in an inward authority which they seek over men's minds, in drawing them to depend upon their opinions, and to seek knowledge at their lips. These men are the true successors of Diotrephes, the lover of pre-eminence, and not lord bishops. Such spirits do light upon another sort of natures, which do adhere to these men; "quorum gloria in obsequio;" stiff followers, and such as zeal marvellously for those whom they have chosen for their masters. This latter sort, for the most part, are men of young years, and superficial understanding, carried away with partial respects of persons, or

with the enticing appearance of godly names and pretences; "Pauci res ipsas sequuntur, plures nomina rerum, plurimi nomina magistrorum:" "Few follow the things themselves, more the names of the things, and most the names of their masters."

About these general affections are wreathed and interlaced accidental and private emulations and discontentments, all which together break forth into contentions; such as either violate truth, sobriety, or peace. These generalities apply themselves. The universities are the seat or the continent of this disease, whence it hath been and is derived into the rest of the realm. There men will no longer be e numero, of the number. There do others side themselves before they know their right hand from their left: so it is true which is said, "transeunt ab ignorantia ad præjudicium," "they skip from ignorance to a prejudicate opinion," and never take a sound judgment in their way. But as it is well noted, "inter juvenile judicium et senile præjudicium, omnis veritas corrumpitur:" through want of years, when men are not indifferent, but partial, then their judgment is weak and unripe; and when it groweth to strength and ripeness, by that time it is forestalled with such a number of prejudicate opinions, as it is made unprofitable: so as between these two all truth is corrupted. In the mean while, the honourable names of sincerity, reformation, and discipline are put in the fore-ward: so as contentions and evil zeals cannot be touched, except these holy things be thought first to be violated. But howsoever they shall infer the solicitation for the peace of the church to proceed from carnal sense, yet I will conclude ever with the apostle Paul," Cum sit inter vos zelus et contentio, nonne carnales estis?" "While there is amongst you zeal and contention, are ye not carnal ?" And howsoever they esteem the compounding of controversies to savour of man's wisdom and human policy, and think themselves led by the wisdom which is from above, yet I say, with St. James, "Non est ista sapientia de sursum descendens, sed terrena, animalis, diabolica: ubi enim zelus et contentio, ibi inconstantia et omne opus pravum." Of this inconstancy it is said by a learned father, "Procedere volunt non ad perfectionem, sed ad permutationem;""They seek to go forward still, not to perfection, but to change.”

The third occasion of controversies I observe to be, an extreme and unlimited detestation of some former heresy or corruption of the church already acknowledged and convicted. This was the cause that produced the heresy of Arius, grounded especially upon detestation of Gentilism, lest the christian should seem, by the assertion of the equal divinity of our Saviour Christ, to approach unto the acknowledgment of more gods than one. The detestation of the heresy of Arius produced that of Sabellius ; who, holding for execrable the dissimilitude which Arius pretended in the Trinity, fled so far from him, as he fell upon that other extremity, to deny the distinction of persons: and to say, they were but only names of several offices and dispensations. Yea, most of the heresies and schisms of the church have