Edwards's Description of the Army.

"Or that army called by the sectaries Independent, and of that part of it which truly is so, I do not think there are fifty pure Independents, but higher flown, more seraphical (as a chaplain who knows well the state of that army expressed it), made up and compounded of Anabaptism, Antinomianism, Enthusiasm, Arminianism, Familism; all these errors, and more too, sometimes meeting in the same persons; strange monsters, having their heads of Enthusiasm, their bodies of Antinomianism, their thighs of Familism, their legs and feet of Anabaptism, their hands of Arminianism, and Libertinism as the great vein going through the whole in one word, the great religion of that sort of men in the army, is liberty of conscience, and liberty of preaching."EDWARDS'S Gangræna, p. 16.

Edwards's Complaint of the Effects of
Toleration.

"SHOULD any man seven years ago have said (which now all men see) that many of the professors and people in England shall be Arians, Anti-Trinitarians, Anti-Scripturists,-nay blaspheme, deride the Scriptures, give over all prayer, hearing sermons, and other holy duties,-be for toleration of all religions, popery, blasphemy, atheism,

it would have been said, it cannot be; and the persons who now are fallen would have said as Hazael, Are we dogs that we should do such things? And yet we see it is so. And what may we thank for this, but liberty, impunity, and want of government? We have the plague of Egypt upon us,— frogs out of the bottomless pit covering our land, coming into our houses, bed-chambers, beds, churches;-a man can hardly come

into any place, but some croaking frog or other will be coming up upon him.”—EDWARDS's Gangræna, p. 121.

Edwards on Toleration.

"A TOLERATION is the grand design of the Devil, his masterpiece and chief engine he works by at this time to uphold his tottering kingdom; it is the most compendious, ready, sure way to destroy all religion, lay all waste, and bring in all evil: it is a most transcendent, catholic and fundamental evil for this kingdom of any that can be imagined. As original sin is the most fundamental sin, all sin, having the seed and spawn of all in it; so a Toleration hath all errors in it, and all evils. It is against the whole stream and current of scripture both in the Old and New Testament, both in matters of faith and manners, both general and particular commands. It overthrows all relations, both political, ecclesiastical, whether errors of judgement or practice, and œconomical. And whereas other evils, be but against some one or few places of scripture or revelation, this is against all: this is the Abaddon, Apollyon, the destroyer of all religion, the Abomination of Desolation and Astonishment, the Liberty of Perdition (as Austine calls it), and therefore the Devil follows it night and day, working mightily in many by writing books for it, and other ways; all the devils in Hell and their instruments being at work to promote a Toleration."-EDWARDS's Gangræna, p.

122.

Conduct of the Parliamentarian Army—1642.

"LORD, how these men are touched to the quick, when any man but themselves dare offer to plunder; as if they desired, not only the free trade, but even the monopoly of plundering to themselves.-But do they think with such clamours and outcries to deaf the ears of men, and drown the ejulations of poor people whom they have harrowed? They have spared no age; neither the venerable old man, nor

the innocent child: No orders of men; the long robe as well as the short hath felt their fury: No sex,-not women, no, not women in childbed, whom common humanity should protect: No condition; neither father nor friends. They have spared no places: the churches of Christians which the Heathens durst not violate, are by them profaned. Their ornaments have been made either the supply of their necessities, or the subject of their scurrilities. Their chalices, or communion cups (let them call them what they will, so they would hold their fingers from them) have become the objects of their sacrilege. The badges and monuments of ancient gentry in windows and pedigrees have been by them defaced. Old evidences, the records of private families, the pledges of possessions, the boundaries of men's properties, have been by them burned, torn in pieces, and the seals trampled under their feet. Ceilings and wainscot have been broken in pieces; walls demolished (a thing which a brave Roman spirit would scorn to tyrannize over), walls and houses. And all this by a company of men crept now at last out of the bottom of Pandora's box! The poor Indians found out by experience that Gold was the Spaniards' God: And the Country finds to their loss what is the reformation which these men seek!"-EARL OF NEWCASTLE's Declaration, printed at York, 1642.

On Bowing at the Name of Jesus.

"HEAR me with patience," said Sir EDWARD DERING; "and refute me with reason. Your command is that all corporal bowing at the name Jesus be henceforth forborne.

"I have often wished that we might decline these dogmatical resolutions in divinity. I say it again and again, that we are not idonei et competentes judices in doctrinal determinations. The theme we are now upon is a sad point: I pray, consider severely on it.

"You know there is no other name under Heaven given among men whereby we

must be saved. You know that this is a Name above every name. Oleum effusum nomen ejus;-it is the carrol of his own spouse. This Name is by a Father stiled Mel in ore, melos in aure, jubilum in corde. This, it is the sweetest and the fullest of comfort of all the Names and Attributes of God, God my Saviour. If Christ were not our Jesus, Heaven were then our envy, which is now our blessed hope.

"And must I, Sir, hereafter do no exterior reverence, none at all, to God my Saviour, at the mention of his saving name Jesus? Why, Sir, not to do it, to omit it, and to leave it undone, it is questionable; it is controvertible; it is at least a moot point in divinity. But to deny it, to forbid it to be done ;—take heed, Sir! God will never own you, if you forbid his honour. Truly, Sir, it horrors me to think of this.

"For my part I do humbly ask pardon of this House, and thereupon I take leave and liberty to give you my resolute resolution. I may, I must, I will do bodily reverence unto my Saviour; and that upon occasion taken at the mention of his saving name Jesus. And if I should do it also as oft as the Name of God, or Jehovah, or Christ, is named in our solemn devotions, I do not know any argument in divinity to control me.

"Mr. Speaker, I shall never be frighted from this with that fond shallow argument, Oh you make an idol of a name. I beseech you, Sir, paint me a voice; make a sound visible if you can. When you have taught mine ears to see, and mine eyes to hear, I may then perhaps understand this subtle argument. In the mean time reduce this dainty species of new idolatry under its proper head, the second commandment, if you can; and if I find it there, I will fly from it ultra Sauromatas, any whither with you.

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Was it ever heard before, that any men, of any religion, in any age, did ever cut short and abridge any worship, upon any occasion, to their God? Take heed, Sir,

and let us all take heed whither we are going! If Christ be JESUS, if JESUS be God, all reverence, exterior as well as interior, is too little for him. I hope we are not going up the back-stairs to Socinianism. "In a word, certainly, Sir, I shall never obey your order, so long as I have a hand to lift up to Heaven, so long as I have an eye to lift up to Heaven. For these are corporal bowings, and my Saviour shall have them at his name JESUS."

Defence of the Clergy.

"I CANNOT think of half the happiness we might hope for, so long as the rewards of Wisdom are held forth to invite and encourage industry. Riches and honour are with me, saith Wisdom, that knew how to invite. Take then none of the reward away, either of profit, or of honour. So much reward as you abate, so much industry you lose. Who ever went unto the Hesperides only to fight with the Dragon ? only for that? for victory, and for nothing else? No, Sir, but there was the fruit of Gold (profit as well as honour) to be gained, to be atchieved; and for that the Dragon shall be fought withal."-SIR EDWARd Dering.

"THE Lawyer, the Physician, the Merchant, through cheaper pains do usually arrive at richer fortunes. And, but that it pleaseth God to work inwardly, I should wonder that so many able heads, ingenious spirits and industrious souls, should joy in the continual life-long pains and care of a parish cure, about 100l. per annum stipend for life; when with easier brows, fewer watchings and lesser charge, they might in another profession (as every day we see it done) fasten a steady inheritance to them and their children of a far larger income." -SIR EDWARD DERING.

Defence of the Bishops.

The Bishops' Bill.

"THIS Bill indeed doth seem to me an uncouth wilderness, a dismal vastness, and

a solitude wherein to wander, and to lose ourselves and our Church, never to be found again. Methinks we are come to the brink of a fatal precipice; and here we stand ready to dare one another, who shall first leap down.

"Truly, Sir, for my part I do look upon this Bill as upon the gasping period of all good order. It will prove the mother of absolute anarchism. It is with me as the passing bell to toll on the funeral of our Religion, which when it goes will leave this dismal shriek behind

Ἐμᾶ θάνοντος γαῖα μιχθήτω πυρί. When Religion dies, let the world be made a bonfire."-SIR EDWARD Dering.

Fear of a Democracy.

"THESE things thus pressed and pursued, I do not see but on that rise of the Kingship and Priestship of every particular man, the wicked sweetness of a popular parity may hereafter labour to bring the King down to be but as the first among the Lords and then if (as a gentleman of the House professed his desire to me) we can but bring the Lords down into our House among us again, ɛüpŋka-all's done. No rather, all's undone, by breaking asunder that well ordered chain of government, which from the chair of Jupiter reacheth down by several golden links, even to the protection of the poorest creature that now lives among us."-SIR EDWard Dering.

Difficulty of Satisfying the People.

"WHAT will the issue be, when hopes grow still on hopes, and one aim still riseth upon another, as one wave follows another, I cannot divine. In the mean time you of that party have made the work of Reformation far more difficult than it was at the day of our meeting; and the vulgar mind, now fond with imaginary hopes, is more greedy of new achievements than thankful for what they have received. Satisfaction

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will not now be satisfactory. They and you are just in Seneca's description. Non patitur aviditas quenquam esse gratum. Nun quam enim improba spei, quod datur, satis est. Eo majora cupimus, quo majora venerunt.-Equè ambitio non patitur quenquam in eâ mensura conquiescere, quæ quondam fuit ejus impudens votum. - Ultra se cupiditas | porrigit, et felicitatem suam non intelligit."SIR EDWARD DERING.

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Upstarts fit for High Offices—good irony.

"How fit would these men be for State employment!" says Antibrownistus Puritanomastix-" Would not How the Cobler make a special Keeper of the Great Seal, in regard of his experience in wax? Or Walker, the Spiritual Ballad-writer, become the office of Secretary of State? Or the Lock-smith that preached in Crooked Lane make an excellent Master of the Wards? And the Taylor at Bridewell Dock might be Master of the Liveries. Who fitter to be Master of the Horse than my Lord Whatchicallum's Groom? I tell you plainly, he

is able to do more service in the stable (besides what he can do in the pulpit) than he that enjoys the place. And would not Brown the Upholster make a proper Groom

of the Bed-chamber ?"

Hugh Peters.

"It was once my lot to be a member of that famous ancient glorious work of buying in Impropriations, by which work 40 or 50 preachers were maintained in the dark parts of this kingdom. Divers knights and gentlemen in the country contributed to this work, and I hope they have not lost that spirit. I wish exceeding well to preaching above many things in this world, and wish my brethren were not under these tithing temptations, but that the State had itinerant preachers in all parts of the kingdom, by which you may reach most of the good ends for this State designed by you. Let poor people first know there is a God,

and then teach them the way of worship. The Prophet says, when the husbandman hath ploughed, harrowed, and broken the clods, then sow your timely seed, when the face of the earth is made plain. Indeed I think our work lies much among clods: I wish the face of the earth were even'd."HUGH PETERS, 2nd Apr. 1646.

Conquests in the East and West Indies.

"TANT de villes rasées, tant de nations exterminées, tant de millions de peuples passez au fil de l'espée, et la plus riche et belle partie du monde bouleversée, pour la negociation des perles et du poivre! Mechaniques victoires. Jamais l'ambition, jamais les inimitiez publiques, ne pousserent les hommes les uns contre les autres, à si horribles hostilitez, et calamitez si misérables."-MONTAIGNE, liv. 3, chap. 6.

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Cry of Religion by the Irreligious. "WE have had sad experience," says BRIAN WALTON, " of the fruits of causeless fears and jealousies, which the more unjust they are, the more violent usually they are, and less capable of satisfaction. It hath been, and is, usual with some, who that they may create fears in the credulous ignorant multitude, and raise clamours against others, pretend great fears of that which they themselves no more fear than the falling of the skies; and to cry out Templum Domini, when they scarce believe Dominum Templi."-The Considerator Considered, p.

29.

Law versus Justice.

THE best case which I have seen of Law versus Justice and Common Sense, is one which MONTAIGNE relates as having happened in his own days. Some men were condemned to death for murder: the Judges were then informed by the officers of an inferior court, that certain persons in their custody had confessed themselves guilty of the murder in question, and had

told so circumstantial a tale that the fact was placed beyond all doubt. Nevertheless it was deemed so bad a precedent, to revoke a sentence and shew that the Law could err, that the innocent men were delivered over to execution.-Liv. 3, chap. 17,-tom. 9, p. 128.

Quaker Railing.

“NONE that ever were born," says LESLIE," vented their rage and madness against their opponents with so much venom, nastiness and diabolical fury as the Quakers have done. Such words as they have found out of spite and inveterate rancour never came into the heads of any either at Bedlam or Billingsgate, or were never so put together by any that I ever heard; and I have had the curiosity to see Mother Damnable, whose rhetorick was honey to the passion with which the Quaker books are stuffed."-Defence of the Snake in the Grass, second part, p. 329.

Roman Houses, how heated. "QUE n'imitons-nous l'architecture Romaine? Car on dit, qu'anciennement, le feu ne se faisoit en leurs maisons que par le dehors, et au pied d'icelles d'où s'inspiroit la chaleur à tout le logis, par les tuyaux practiquez dans l'espais du mur, lesquels alloient embrassant les lieux qui en devoient estre eschauffez: ce que j'ay veu clairement signifié, je ne sçay où, en Seneque."― MONTAIGNE, liv. 3, chap. 13,tom. 9.

The passage from Seneca is thus given by the editor, M. Coste. "Quadam nostrâ demum prodisse memoriâ scimus, ut-impressos parietibus tubos per quos circumfunderetur calor, qui ima simul et summa foveret æqualiter.”—Epist. 90.

Beggars irreclaimable.

"JE sçay avoir retiré de l'aumosne des enfants pour m'en servir, qui bientost après m'ont quitté et ma cuisine et leur liv

| rée, seulement pour se rendre à leur premiere vie. Et en trouvay un amassant depuis des moules emmy la voirie pour son disner, que par priere, ny par menasse, je ne sceu distraire de la saveur et douceur qu'il trouvoit en l'indigence. Les gueux ont leurs magnificences, et leurs voluptez, comme les riches; et, dit-on, leurs dignitez et ordres politiques."- MONTAIGne, liv. 3, chap. 13,-tom. 9, p. 164.

Quakers against the Rich.

And you must have

"WOE unto you that are called Lords, Ladies, Knights, Gentlemen, and Gentlewomen, in respect to your persons; who are called of men Master and Sir, and Mistress and Madam. your wine and ale, and all your dainty dishes! and you have your fine attire, silk, velvet and purple, gold and silver; and you have your waiting men and waiting maids under you to wait upon you, and your coaches to ride in, and your high and lofty horses. And here you are Lords over your fellow-creatures, and they must bow and crouch to you, and you will be called Masters, upholding that which Christ in his doctrine forbids, who says, Be not ye called masters.-The Lord abhors all your profession! Your works are the works of the Devil,-in your dainty dishes,-in your lofty horses,-in your curious buildings,—in your earthly honour,-which is all but the fruits of the Devil. You are too high and fine, and too lofty to enter in at the strait gate."— The Trumpet of the Lord blown,— 1655.

Saints and Diseases.

"LL ne faut pas douter que les femmes qui ont mal au sein ne se soient mises sous la protection de Saint Mammard, plutôt que sous la protection d'un autre, à cause du nom qu'il porte. Il ne faut pas douter que ce ne soit pour la même raison que ceux qui ont mal aux yeux, les vitriers et les faiseurs de lanterne, se recomman