( 220 ) M Thefe things are unfit matter for a controverfy with anyEnglilh-Menof this age, but only with Foreigners andStran- gers. I thought once it would never have been fo hard.. to know good Men from bad, as thefe would make it. But I re- member how bad Chrift and his Ápoftles were thought by their perfecutors. Wherein doth fuch mens badnefs lie ? In not coming to their Churches ? Thoufands do, and the ref go to other Churches : But thoufands of our adverfaries go to none., but very rarely. is it in any orber Vice ? Why do they then charge them with avoiding Vice in Hypocrite ? And what is that Vice ? Here are, force fay, many hundreds that pradife Phyfick in London :. The Potts, Walls, and. Gates are ftickt with Phyficians offers to cure the Lecherous pox Today I read Kirleu's Bill, that faith he bath cured eight hundred of thatdifeafe. I dare bet with you all the Money I.have, that if you enquire, not eight, or perhaps twoof that eight hundred were Puritans, or fuck as younow can out for Non-conformi/is, (unlefs you call Papifts or fuch other, Non-ConformiIts ) except any of them were Wives, that catcht it of Husbands that areof your Church or Parifhes and not ofus, or Husbands-that catcht it of fuch conformable (or Papift )., Wives. But ofthefe things we need no defence. 3. But if our hearers be bad, they have the more need of teaching ; and whether more are converted from ignorance., fenfuality, worldlinefsand prophanenefs, by their teaching or ours, ask others andnot us. L. Obj. XIV. But theyfay that it's byyou that we are in dan- ger cf Popery, becaufe you.kefp up their hopes ofa toleration byyour di- vctons weak iiná us. M. Theymay of the two fay more probably it is we that bring in Prelacy, Lay Excommunicators,Ceremonies, Liturgies : For ofthe two, we have done lefsagainft thefe.than- againft Po- pery, andnand not at fo great a diftance from them : The im- pudencyof fome men is the fhame of depraved humane nature. They know that it is for being more againft Popery than they ere, that our ruine is fo implacably endeavoured.. They know that the Papifts are our chiefeft profecutors, thinking that if theycould d.eitroy us-as their greateft adverfaries, they fhould bring the Churchof England to their will, and that it is but._ap- propriating the name of Popery to the ItalianFaction that fet the Pope_
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=