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[Chancels no Popery.]

"THE use of the Chancel for the Communion service is so far from being Popery that the Papists and Popish Impropriators in England, permit the Chancels where they are concerned to lie the most disorderly and ruinous of any other, as I myself have seen in several places, they are not careful to repair or clean them; nor can they be brought to contribute to the Reformation of Churches but by mere compulsion, and they would be well enough satisfied to see all the Chancels and Churches in England lye in ruin, for this would be the most certain way to overthrow the Reformation and bring in Popery, which being planted again by Authority would soon oblige that party to rebuild the Churches."-BISHOP OF LINCOLN'S Charge, 1697, p. 22.

that pleaseth God, nor that God requires ; but is a thing that God doth tolerate for the weakness of men. For as the father contenteth his child with an apple or a hobby-horse, not because these things do delight the father, but because the child, ruled by affections, is more desirous of these things than the father is rejoiced in the deed; so Almighty God, condescending to the infirmities of man and his weakness, doth tolerate material churches, gorgeously built and richly decked, not because he reSTRYPE'S Cranmer, p. 108. quires, or is pleased with such things.'"

[Necessity of speaking in a Tongue understood by the People.]

ST. AUGUSTINE says, "there is a diligens negligentia, an useful negligence, proper in this case to Ecclesiastical teachers, who must sometimes condescend to improprieties of speech, when they cannot speak otherwise to the apprehensions of the vulgar. As he notes that they were used to say ossum instead of os, to distinguish a mouth from a bone in Africa, to comply with the underAnd for this standing of their hearers. reason, I doubt not, there are so many Africanisms, or idioms of the African tongue, in St. Austin, because he thought it more commendable sometimes to deviate a little from the strict grammatical purity and propriety of the Latin tongue, than not to be understood by his hearers."- BINGHAM, vol. 14, p. 4. § 19.

Uniformity in Religion preserved by Force.

"Do they keep away schism? if to bring a numb and chill stupidity of soul, an unactive blindness of mind upon the people by their leaden doctrine, or no doctrine at all; if to persecute all knowing and zealous Christians by the violence of their Courts, be to keep away schism, they keep away schism indeed: and by this kind of disci

pline all Italy and Spain is as purely and politically kept from schism as England hath been by them. With as good a plea might the dead-palsy boast to a man, 'Tis I that free you from stitches and pains, and the troublesome feeling of cold and heat, of wounds and strokes; if I were gone, all these would molest you. The winter might as well vaunt itself against the spring, I destroy all noisome and rank weeds, I keep down all pestilent vapours: yea! and all wholesome herbs, and all fresh dews by your violent and hide-bound frost:-but when the gentle west winds shall open the fruitful bosom of the earth, thus overguarded by your imprisonment, then the flowers put forth and spring, and then the sun shall scatter the mists, and the manuring hand of the tiller shall root up all that burdens the soil without thank to your bondage."MILTON. Reason of Church Government urged against Prelaty, vol. 1, p. 6.

[Fained Gear. What?]

"BE strong, saith St. Paul, having your loins girt about-some get them girdles with great knots, as though they would be surely girt, and as though they would break the devil's head with their knotted girdles. Nay, he will not be so overcome; it is no knot of a hempen girdle that he feareth; that is no piece of harness of the armour of God which may resist the assault in the evil day,—it is but fained gear."-LATIMER. Sermon on the Epistle for 21st Sunday after Trinity.

[Original Sin.]

"It was well said of St. Austin in this thing, though he said many others in it less certain, Nihil est peccato originali ad prædicandum notius, nihil ad intelligendum secretius. The article, we all confess; but the manner of explicating it, is not an apple of knowledge, but of contention."-JEREMY TAYLOR, vol. 9, p. 73.

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“Ir was long ago observed, that there are sixteen several famous opinions in this one question of original sin.”—Ibid. p. 330.

One hundred and twenty Villages in Sussex wholly destitute of Evangelical Instruction. "HAD it not been stated on the unquestionable authority of the Secretaries of the Sussex Congregational Society, that such a host of villages, and some towns, were at this advanced period of the Christian era, quite out of the pale of the church of Christ, the statement would have appeared incredible. Tell it not to the heathen world, that in a county so close to the metropolis of highly favoured Britain, and where directors of missionary societies hold their meetings, concentrate their energies, and arrange for the welfare of the world, that a population of not less than 60,000 are hitherto unblessed with those tidings which have partially gladdened the hearts of the Hindoo, the Hottentot, and the inhabitants of the lovely islands of the Southern Ocean." -Evangelical Mag. Feb. 1832, p. 69.

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[Lawfulness of Recreation.]

"I HAVE heard the Protestant ministers in France, by men that were wise and of their own profession, much blamed in that they forbade dancing, a recreation to which the genius of that air is so inclining, that they lost many who would not lose that. Nor do they less than blame the former determination of rashness, who now gently connive at that which they had so roughly forbidden."-HARRINGTON'S Oceana, p. 207.

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[Divine Judgments.]

"NEVER, "says DONNE, "think it a weakness to call that a judgment of God, which others determine in nature: Do so, so far as works to thy edification who seest that

judgment, though not so far as to argue and conclude the final condemnation of that man upon whom that judgment is fallen."Sermon xlvi. p. 466.

[The Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all Sin.]

"A CERTAIN man on the Malabar coast

had enquired of various devotees and priests how he might make atonement for his sin,

and at last he was directed to drive iron spikes, sufficiently blunted, through his sandals, and on these spikes he was to place his naked feet and walk, if I mistake not, 250 coss, that is about 480 miles. If through loss of blood, or weakness of body he was obliged to halt, he might wait for healing and strength. He undertook the journey, and while he halted under a large shady tree, where the Gospel was sometimes preached, one of the missionaries came and preached in his hearing, from these words: The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. While he was preaching, the man rose up, threw off his torturing sandals and cried out aloud, This is what I want; and he became a lively witness, that the blood of Jesus Christ does cleanse from all sins indeed."-Baptist Periodical Accounts.

["Rebuke them sharply."]

"LET none think that those seasonable rebukes which I here encourage and plead for, proceed from any hatred of the persons of those wretches (how much soever they deserve it) but from a dutiful concern for, and charity to the publick, and from a just care and commiseration of posterity, that the contagion may not spread, nor the poison of the example pass any further. For I take reproof no less than punishment, to be rather for prevention than retribution; rather to warn the innocent than to reproach the guilty; and by thus warning them while they are innocent, in all probability to preserve and keep them so.

"For does not St. Paul himself make this the great ground and end of all reproof? 1. Tim. v. 20: Them who sin (says he) rebuke before all, that others also may fear. And in Titus i. 13: Rebuke them sharply. Where let us suppose now that St. Paul had to do with a pack of miscreants, who had by the most unchristian practices dethroned and murdered their prince, to whom this Apostle had so often and so strictly enjoined absolute subjection, plundered and undone their brethren, to whom the said Apostle had so often commanded the greatest brotherly love and amity; and lastly, rent, broken and torn in pieces the Church in which he had so earnestly pressed unity, and so severely prohibited all schismatical divisions; what (I say) do we think now? Would St. Paul have rebuked such newhe not? And if he would, do we imagine fashioned extraordinary Christians, or would

that he would have done it in the modern treacherous dialect? Touch not my rebels, and do my fanaticks no harm. No moderation-monger under heaven shall ever persuade me that St. Paul would have took such a course with such persons, or have taught Timothy, or Titus, or any other gospel preacher, to do so, for fear of spoiling their promotion or translation, or offending any powerful faction of men whatsoever.

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"And pray do all consider with yourselves, whether you would be willing to have your children, your dearest friends. and relations, grow up into Rebels, Schismaticks, Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, Quakers, the blessed off-spring of the late reforming Times? And if you would not, then leave off daubing and trimming it, and plainly, and impartially, and severely declare to your children and families, the villany and detestable hypocrisy of those which are such. And assure yourselves that this is the likeliest way to preserve them untainted with the same infection."-SOUTH's Sermons, vol. 6, p. 80.

[Doctrine of Angels.]

"Ir is the opinion of that greate doctour and prince of diuines Saint Thomas of Aquin, that the Angelles are so different in nature and perfection that there are not tyvoe of one sorte and kind (as there are of men and other creatures) but that euerie one is distinguished in nature and office from euerie one, euen from the highest to the lovvest. Which his opinion is generallie receiued of all Thomists, vvho for their number and learning beare noe little svvaye in the schooles, and are no little esteemd in the Church of God. The same Doctour is also of opinion that the Angels are farre more in number than are all the species or kindes of all the corporall creatures in the vvorld, that is, more then the celestiall bodies, then the simple bodyes which we call the four elements, yea then all the mixte bodies composed of them, be they inanimate or animated, liuing or not liuing, as beasts, plants, hearbes, metalles and the like, which his opinion all his followers doe imbrace as constantlie as they doe the former.”— MATTHEW Kellison.

[Plausibility of Popish Disputants.] "CONSIDER 1st. How suitable Popery is to a carnal inclination, (as I have manifested elsewhere). 2nd. What plausible reasons Papists have to delude poor souls, from pretended universality, antiquity, &c. 3rd. And how few of the vulgar are able to defend their Faith, or to answer the two great sophistical questions of the Papist, Where hath your Church been visible in all ages? and How prove you the Scripture to be the Word of God? 4th. And how it will take with the people to be told that their fore-fathers all died in the Romane Faith. 5th. And above all, what a multitude of Jesuites, Fryars, and Priests can they prepare for the work, and poure out upon us at their pleasure from Flanders, France, Rome, and other places; and how these men are purposely trained up for this deceiving work,

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and have their common arguments at their fingers' ends; which though they are threadbare and transparent fallacies to the wise, yet to the vulgar, yea to our unstuddyed gentry, they are as good as if they had never been confuted, or as the best. 6th. And what a world of wealth and secular help is at their becks in France, Flanders, Italy, Spain, Germany, &c. They have millions of gold, and navies and armies ready to promote their work, which other sects have none of. 7th. And what worldly motives have their priests and fryers to promote their zeal? Their superiors have such variety of preferments, and ample treasures to reward them with, and their single life alloweth them so much vacancy from domestick avocations, and withall, they so much glory in a pharisaicall zeal in compassing sea and land to make proselytes, that it is an incredible advantage that they get by their industry: the envious man by them being sowing his tares, whilest others sleep, and are not half so industerious in resisting them.

8th. What abundance have they lately won in England, notwithstanding they have wanted publick liberty, and have only taken secret opportunities to seduce? Persons of the nobility, and gentry, and of the clergy, as well as of the common people, and zealous professors of religion of late, as well as the prophane have been seduced by them. Princes in other countries have been wonne by them; and the Protestant religion cunningly workt out: and what a lamentable encrease they had made in England before our warres, by that connivance and favour which through the queen was procured them, (though incomparably short of this absolute liberty) is sufficiently known.

9th. And it is not the least of our danger, that the most of our ministers are unable to deal with a cunning Jesuite or priest : and this is not to be wondered at; considering how many of them are very young men, put in of late in the necessity of the Churches (which the world knows who have caused,) and there must be time, before